One Piece: Wills of Steel
by King of Monsters
Summary: My story redone and better. Two men set out to become unforgettable legends that the world will never forget. Will they search for One Piece, or find something else? Read and find out!
1. We Shall Rise!

Alright chapter 1 of my re edited One Piece Story. Yes it took a LONG while but that's mostly cause DAMN LIFE IS COMPLEX! There has been quite a bit of editing done to this story.

So I hope this will be better and I personally feel that this will considerably more satisfactory. Oh and I'll say this now, though I'm probably not the first guy to come up with the idea, but if someone in the One Piece cannon winds up with Hurley's power I will state now: I did not copy it and I wrote this story with those powers first! By the way any/all translations of whatever words you may see in this fic will be at the bottom of the story.

Anyway... ON WITH IT!  
>-<p>

In the middle of the night, two men in black clothing were creeping through the dark hallway of an empty building. One was short, the other was tall and fat. Normally it would be suicide considering the owner of the building they were in and his security. The two kept creeping until they found the door they were looking for.

"Finally found it. I knew scaling the walls of this place was worth it." The short one said with a sneering voice.

"But I was the one that climbed up the rope. That was my part right?" The tall fat man asked in a dull tone.

"Yeah whatever now be quiet." The short one hissed as he pulled out a set of picks and inserted them into the lock. After a few seconds a click was heard. "Got it! My genius comes through again."

The two went through the door to look at the insides of the main office of the building.

"So where do you think it is sir?" The tall man asked.

"Simple logic dumb ass. The man would put them in a place that would be closest to him when he's working. So..." The short man walked up to the main polished wood desk and found what he knew would be there. A drawer with a lock on it. Once again the man used his clips to work the lock. Meanwhile the tall man looked at the objects on the desk's surface and took notice of a few pictures. One was of a young boy with four adults standing behind him with jovial smiles. Another was a picture of a man and a woman waving at the camera. The last was of large ship that was masterfully crafted, though in his simple mind the only words that came to him were 'That boat is perty.'

Click.

"Yes! About damn time." The short man said. He set down his lock picking set and opened the drawer. Inside where small bags that made jingling sounds when he moved them, no doubt filled with coins or some other treasure, a few ring boxes, and a small leather billfold. Finally in the back he found a pile of papers. He removed them and opened them to find they were exactly what he was looking for.

"Got it!" The man quickly closed the drawer, locked it, and stood to leave. "Lets get out of here. I don't want to be here any longer than I need to be."

"We arn't gonna take anything else sir?" The tall man asked.

"Are you kidding?" said his companion, "If the rumors about this place's owner are true, then I'm running the instant my feet touch solid ground. Now lets go!"

Both men left the office and re-locked the door, rushed through the halls to the window they came through, and started to scale back down the building with the short man holding on to the tall fat man's back while he traveled down the building with an apparently large amount of physical strength. When they touched ground they bolted off towards the town making a clean getaway.

Little did they know that up in the room they had entered, there was a small bird watching them. When it bird watched them leave through the door it spread it's wings and flew up into a shaft in the ceiling of the room.

-  
>The One Week Later<p>

A young man walked down the walkway from the ship to the dock. He was about 19 in age, had short brown eyes, and a very unique hair style. His light brown hair was cut close to his head but from the fromt of his head to the back he had long hair tied back into a ponytail. He wore a black tank top under an open white island shirt that had a blue tropic flower on the back in the middle of a red fire ball. He had on regular pants but they had loosened straps on the bottom of the legs.

He walked down and looked around the dock. Men and women all walked around him. Some of them civilians, the others, were Pirates. This sight was not surprising, for the port that the young man was at: Iron Lobby. A port built entirely for the business of pirate trade and supply. The entire island was a place for all pirates in the Grand Line to come to sell and trade their goods, completely out of sight from the World Government. This was due to the unique item called a Moon Map.

The map was drawn up with special ink that could only be seen in Moonlight. The journey has to be taken at night as well. The reason for this is because the ink will disappear completely when it comes in contact with sunlight. So far its the only reason why the World Government hasn't been able to find the island.

The young man walked down the dock to the record keeper of the docks and started answering his questions.

"Alright young man, what is your name?"

"Alden Harxey."

"And what is your business here?"

"Ship hunting."

"Alright, and how long will your stay be?"

"Two days at least."

"Ok, that'll be 40 Belli."

Alden paid the record keeper, and decided to ask him something.

"Excuse me sir but, I know this is a Pirate trading port but, I half expected to see everyone killing and stealing from each other. Yet everyone is acting as regular as common city people. Whats up with that?"

The record keeper looked at Alden and said "You must be new here. No one acts up because its against the rules here. All pirates signed in must act accordingly or risk being arrested, banned from the island, and their Moon Map taken away. The port's owner demands order for the sake of proving the world wrong that all pirates are grubby thieves. However, of course, there is one exception."

"What's that?" Alden asked.

"If you can commit a crime without being caught, have no proof against you, or leave before the crime is reported, then you can get away with it." said the man smiling.

"Oh, so that's why it's so calm. They're all being sneaky." Alden sweat dropped as he let this information sink into his head. He then walked away to perform the goal he had set out to do.

Alden had finally gotten to the Grand Line after months of preparation with his father, a trader for the port who had often told his son he'd take him to the Grand Line when he was younger when he wasn't on a trade route. The crew had gotten to the grand line just about a month ago, and when they did Alden set off by himself to acheive his dream, to be part of a legendary pirate crew. A crew so infamous, the all the world knows about them. Alden himself would become captain of such a crew, but decided against it. He himself although having many other talents, leadership was NOT in the category. So he decided to buy a ship, find a crew, and join them in their journey to greatness.

The thought of it was enough to make Alden all the more determined to make his dream come true.

Bump.

Alden, with his mind lost in thought, had accidentally bumped his shoulder into a walking by person.

"Sorry." he said.

"Watch were your going kid!" The said person was a short man with a thick beard. He turned and continued off in the other direction.

"Geez, rude much?" Alden whispered. He started to walk off on his way when after the first two steps he stopped and turned with an unpleasant look on his face. Alden walked up to the man that he had bumped into and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hey, I said I'm sorry. Now could you please give me my wallet back?"

"What? What are you talking about?" The man replied.

"I noticed that while I was walking away, the feeling in my pocket of my wallet was gone."

"And you got the gall to accuse me?"

"Yes I do, so if you would please give it back." Alden said with his hand open facing the man.

"Hey, how can you prove I got your wallet huh? Don't you know the rules of the port?"

"Yes I do and I absolutely know that you have my wallet is because it's sticking out of your pocket, and it has my family symbol on it."

The man looked down and and saw that there was a peice of leather sticking out of his pocket and on it there was a petal in flames quite viable to the eye.

"Uhhhhhh..." The man looked up to Alden, then...he ran away.

"HEY!" Alden screamed and chased after the man. For a short guy he really could ran fast. The man could also move through the crowd more easily. Alden kept with his pace as fast as he could, but there were so many people around.

But finally the man turned a corner. The crowd wasn't as dense as it was here so Alden caught up and turned the corner.

Were he ran into the little man as well as three very large men standing behind him. The tallest fat one had a large hammer, another with a pick-ax, and the last with a giant wooden club. Also, they were in front of a very large ship were the crew were all looking over the railing at the men and Alden.

"Oh crap."

"Well, good sir," the small man said while holding Alden's wallet in an obvious fashion, "Do you still think I stole your wallet?"

Alden looked at him and said, "Duh."

"Well my crew mates disagree. Don't ya boys?" The three big men behind the little man laughed in agreement. "These are the Foulton Brothers. The biggest men in my crew. Still think I have your wallet?"

"Yes, and again, DUH!"

"Fine then. Boys, tell the kid that I don't have his wallet."

All three men charged forward, raising their weapons. Alden crouched slightly and put his elbows wide with his fists close to his body.

The first brother was the one with the hammer. He swung it like a bat hoping to smash Alden's head off his shoulders. However Alden spring-jumped forward and under the swing of the hammer. The other brother with the wooden club also swung his weapon sideways to try and strike Alden in the head or stomach.

Alden leaned back and let himself fall to the ground. The club flew right over his body. The third brother swung down his pick-ax and Alden rolled out of the way. The pick-ax speared into the ground. Alden rolled until he planted his hands on the ground and pushed himself up.

"You guys may be big but I got something you don't."

All brothers turned to look at him.

"An education in fighting technique."

Alden ran straight to the brothers as the one with the hammer swung. Alden pulled back his left arm and thrust his right fist forward at the metal head and stomped his right foot into the ground halting his run. During his fist's strike his hand suddenly looked to catch on fire with bright transparent red flame.

"Burning Straight!"

Alden's fiery fist crashed into the hammer head and smashed it upon impact. The hammer handle was blown out of the large man's hands and his eyes were wide with shock. While he was dumbfounded Alden took advantage of the opening and pushed off the ground with his right foot and brought up his left knee which was also covered with the red flame.

"Burning Tremble!" Alden's knee slammed into the gut of the hammer brother causing him to fall on his back.

Alden turned to look behind him and saw the wooden club coming strait for him. He jumped straight up and let the club fly under him. As soon as he landed he turned his body and kicked the back of the man's leg making him fall to one knee. While he was down Alden kicked his leg out hard and cought the man in the back of the head sending his face forward into the dirt.

Behind Alden the last standing brother came at him with the pick axe with the intent of sticking the blade into Alden's head. Alden heard the man's great footsteps a mile away and when they got close enough Alden spun on his feet to the right and away from the pick axe's destination making the weapon's blade stick into the ground. Alden quickly put his foot at the base of the metal that connected to the wooden handle under the blade that wasn't in the ground and kicked the man in his chest forcing him back and letting go of his weapon. Alden pressed his attack by running at the man who tried to throw a punch but Alden threw out and blocked the strike with his left forearm.

Alden threw a right punch to the man's gut making him double over and bring his face to Alden's left elbow. Alden grabbed the arm he blocked earlier and tugged hard and the man was forced to move forward. Alden grabbed his other arm and pulled downward to make his opponent bend forward put his head between Alden's legs and reached under the man's shoulders and threaded his arms up and around his torso.

"Oh this is gonna hurt." Alden said to his grappled enemy before he jumped up, tucked his knees and placed them on the back of the man's head and let gravity bring him back down and slamming his opponent's face into the dirt and letting his knees slide down the sides of the man's head upon impact to prevent the front of his skull being crushed while still delivering the painful blow to the man's face.

Alden moved back to his feet and observed his opponent to be out cold. He wouldn't be allowed to be at ease yet as he heard the two men he dispatched earlier run at him. Alden responded by jumping and turning around mid-air while doing so to land with his legs out and his feet parallel to each other. Alden pulled his elbows in and made fists with both hands.

"Ahhhhhhhh!" Both the charging men screamed as they ran break-neck at Alden, who's fists lit up with the red transparent fire again.

"Burning..."

"We'll kill you!" Both men yelled filled with anger.

"UPPER!" Alden yelled as he sent both fists upwards into the chins of the two men trying to attack him.

Both men went flying up and over Alden to land next to and on top of their unconscious brother. Alden stood straight and lowered his hands to his sides. Hur turned to his fallen adversaries and breathed out loud.

"My hands where on fire, I was in a solid stance and was clearly going to uppercut you both but you still came at me. How dumb can you get?"

Seeing that his opponent's weren't getting up, he then looked back to the small man who know had a jaw falling to the ground. Alden sprinted to him and the man turned to run, but before either of them could get anywhere a loud bang was heard and a bullet had just shot into the earth in front of the small man.

Both Alden and the man looked up at the point were the shot had been fired and they both saw a man with a balding head with hair growing from the back. He wore a black jacket with lots of pockets and sticking out of them were many pistol handles. His legs were covered by green pants that also had lots of pockets but you could see knife handles sticking out.

"Captain!" The small man cried.

"Eltu, give the kid his wallet."

"But captain, I-"

"I said, give him back his wallet. The boy earned it."

The small man, know known as Eltu, walked to Alden and stuck out his hand with the wallet. Alden quickly snatched it up.

"As for you kid..." Alden looked up at the man in green, "I am Captain Sporosso. This crew is known as the Emerald Pirates, and you just took down my three strongmen. I have one thing to say to you."

Alden looked strait at the man.

"Wanna join us?"

Alden looked startled at first, then a smile grew on his face. "First things first man, we have to talk."

"Then come aboard." The captain motioned for Alden to walk up the docking board, and he did so.

"So what exactly spurned you on to make a decision like asking me to join your crew?" Alden asked. He was now sitting in a chair across from Captain Sporosso in his office chamber.

"Quite a few things actually. One: we need some extra hands on board, Two: Those hands have to be competent enough to be a pirate, and three: that flashy show you did out there. What exactly was that boy?"

"Busoushiki no Tamashii. A martial art made to draw out one's energy and used to increase the damage of martial techniques."

"Quite a talent you got there. Could be very useful in our plans, and trust me boy we've got big plans for this port indeed. Been working on them for about a week now."

"What? A big trade for a lot of Belli?"

"No, no young boy. We are planning a merger with the owner of this port. You see, we don't call ourselves the Emerald Pirates for nothing. Jewels, gems, stones of great rarity are our specialty. My favorite happens to be Emeralds, hence our crew's name. We are a very powerful crew and our resources surely won't be denied. The owner will have no other choice than to join with us."

"This owner of the port, who is he? I heard he made the rule that just accusing someone of a crime isn't enough, you have to have actual proof or catch them in the act."

"Yes, which reminds me. Please excuse Eltu, he was a street urchin when we picked him up. Stealing was all he could do to survive. And as the saying goes, old habits die hard."

"Well I guess I could understand that. But like I was saying, the port owner sounds like a real character."

"Oh he is. Although, no one in my crew has ever seen him, they say he is not a man, but an otherworldly being in the skin of a man. They say he chose the name Iron Lobby because his heart is made of cold hard metal with nothing else in him."

"A man with a cold, lifeless metal heart?" Alden questioned.

"Yes. Supposedly because he had been in conflicts and battles so vicious and horrid that he forced himself to be rid of all humanity and kindness to deal with the tremendous amount of blood on his hands. But that isn't really the issue we are dealing with at the moment. We just need to convice him of our plans. You my boy, are in luck. We were planning on talking with him tomorrow evening. So what do you say?"

Alden put his chin in his hand and considered everything he had heard.

"I have only one question." he asked.

"Ask away son." Sporosso encouraged.

"Are you intending to make your crew so legendary that all the world will know your names?"

Sporosso smiled slyly, "It is my every intention be be world-renowned boy. I guarantee you that."

"Then you have a new shipmate." Alden put out his hand and Sporosso shook it firmly. When they let go Sporosso instructed Alden to walk with him.

"So what will I be doing? Navigating? Marksman? Shipwright's assistant?" Alden asked as they were walking through the lower levels of the ship.

"Now now my boy, everyone has to start from the bottom up. You'll be helping the others down here with some clean up."

"Clean up?" Alden asked.

Sporosso opened up a door to his left and inside was a man that looked to be in his twenty's was washing the window of the room.

He turned around and Alden saw sunglasses connected by a strap behind his head. Covering his hair, if he had any, was a black leather bandana. He had on a black shirt and brown pants. Your average pirate man.

"Hey there!" he said he said with a cheery voice, "Evening captain! Got another one eh?"

"Alden, this is Peaky. He'll be your cabin-mate. You'll be helping him with all the chores."

Alden turned to Sporosso with a look of shock. "Chores? But I thought-"

"Now you two be sure to get some rest. We've got a big day tomorrow!" Sporosso closed the door behind him, leaving the two alone in the room.

Alden then plopped down on the bed nearest to him.

"Awwww, man! Some legendary crew I must be in. I fight three muscle bound idiots trying to kill me, and now I'm a cabin boy! How could this get worse?"

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! RAT! RAT! QUICK KILL IT!" Peaky screamed at the top of his lungs, making Alden jump up in surprise.

"Oh good lord." he muttered.

Alden looked over to see a small mouse run into a small hole in the wall.

"You gotta be kidding. IT'S A MOUSE!" Alden yelled in frustration.

"Yeah but I bet the things got a mean streak a mile long. It probably has really sharp teeth too." Peaky said as he slowly came down from the bed he was standing on. "So uh, how did you get into this? Spossoro give you the 'Big Money' speech, or did he give you the 'Great Fame, and an assured place in history' speech? We all got into this place like that too."

"We? What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about the other cabin boys. It's like the crew is collecting them."

"Oh great, I'm a faceless pawn on a giant chess board."

"Pretty much," Added Peaky, "But I've been here a week so I'd say I was a rook, or a bishop."

"AWWWWWWWWW!" Alden groaned in frustration.

-Later that night, in the Captain's office-

"Is everything ready?" Asked Sporosso.

"Yes Captain, we have twenty three cabin boy ready and naively waiting." Eltu had stated while he peered over to his captain.

"We've already gotten the final report from our men on the inside. Our plan has already started smoothly."

"Good. Everything is going as planned." Captain Sporosso began to explain, "We send in a cabin boy with one of our men and have the other one kill him. Our new, more stupid cabin boys become angered by this display. I rally them up and tell them to take over the port office. During that time whatever security is there will kill the recruit cabin-boys, tiring them out to be done in no time. Then we line up the staff, and ask witch one will serve us. Those that don't, get the shaft, then the bullet. And then, when we have everything we need, we kill whats left of the cabin boys."

"Sir we may have a problem, informants also say that the port owner's assistant manager has been running the show for about a week."

"So, what about her?"

"Sir, the Port Owner may not be there. It may just have attendants, workers, the trade goods."

"If worst comes to worst, we'll improvise. But remember, this plan will grant us total control over Iron Lobby! We didn't go and steal the blueprints and floor prints for the building for nothing did we?"

All those who were present were grinning and chuckling.

"Gentlemen, rest up, for tomorrow, we take Iron Lobby!

All the men raised their hands up in agreement and in the eagerness to have the one port in the world that had some of the greatest riches in the world.

What they didn't know is, that behind the door, somebody was listening intently to their conversation. When the meeting was over, the eavesdropper sneaked away, without a sound.

The Next Day, On the Northern Port Section

Alden was walking alongside Peaky as he and what seemed to be the entire crew. Captain Sporosso said that taking the entire crew to the port office was a sign of seriousness, and that the Emerald Pirates were to be taken seriously. But what he didn't know was why all the crew had weapons.

"Don't we want to make this guy a partner? We don't wanna scare him off." Alden whispered to Peaky.

"It's all part of business." Peaky said, "By bearing weapons it shows that we can't be intimidated. When presenting oneself you can't make yourself look timid or easily turned away. You've got to show you're willing to be the tough guy looking for aggressive expansion."

"You seem to know a lot about marketing. Where'd you learn that?"

"I didn't, I just guessed. Why? Do you know some stuff about marketing?" Peaky asked while smiling a wide grin.

Alden sighed trough his teeth. As he walked through a large set of gates he saw all the residential buildings that reached all the way back to something that made him gasp in shock. The port office wasn't an office, it was a fortress!

Seemingly built at the back of the small city, the building was a gigantic structure with huge walls of smoothed stone. The building had three parts, in front was a smaller building that stretched from one side to another. The second was behind it and was a large tower. The third part was in a great horse-shoe shape around the back of the second building and connected to the first. The most peculiar thing was, Alden had seen the middle tower before, on a navy base.

"Whoa. This place is huge. But whats with the navy building? I thought this guy was a pirate.?" Alden asked.

"He is," Peaky replied, "But when this guy specializes in the selling of one particular type of item, World Government merchandise."

"What?"

"Uh huh, the man apparently started stealing things from navy bases. Maps, weapons, treasure. Then the guy got the idea to make a place specifically for pirates to trade. Iron Lobby, and of course ay pirate whos a pirate wants to be a step ahead of the navy so you can imagine the success that brought, witch led to enough money to build this place. They used the blue prints of a navy base as well as an earth-supported version of a navy structure. Ever heard of Enies Lobby?"

Alden's eyes widened. "The Marine Base connected to the Gates of Justice? You mean the owner of this place..."

"Yeseroonie." Peaky finished for him. "The guy went there, snuck in, got the schematics for the place, and got the hell out of dodge before anyone knew he was there. Came here and built almost the exact same building with a little twist on the name as a big ole middle finger flip to the World Govt. Obviously he made some changes with the front and back structures. As well as those gates back there that separate the docks and the dock bazaars with the residential areas and the main merchant shops."

"Whoa." Alden was near speechless as Peaky continued on.

"Any way the place is built not only on the top of the ground, but under it are the storage shelves, which are supposedly to hold just about everything. In the hills behind it are, also supposedly, vaults containing multiple treasures. Some even say he has an entire COLLECTION of Devil Fruits from almost everywhere in the world. An entire wall of them I heard! Others say he has some of the rarest swords in the world. He's even rumored to have a giant ship in one of those vaults. But like I said, its all 'supposedly' so who knows." Peaky finished as he turned to Alden, who was staring wide eyed at him. "What?" he asked.

"Your smarter than you look arn't you?" Alden asked.

"Why did I sound smart?" Peaky brightened at the question.

Alden however didn't respond as everyone had stopped. They were now at the front gates of the fortress. The open front gates. Everyone stood there looking around, looking at the building, looking at the scenery. The captain was out in front with Eltu and the Foulton Brothers, who now each carried a large object wrapped in cloth.

Sporosso turned to Eltu, "Ar'nt there supposed to be guards here?"

Eltu looked back up at his captain and said, "Well our spies did tell us that the port owner may be gone, so maybe he has them as his bodyguards now."

"And leave the place unprotected?"

"Well no ones ever tried to take over the place. My guess is all the rumors that go around abound the guy."

Suddenly, the doors to the building opened, and out came a young woman. She had brown eyes and deep red hair in a pony tail that was styled to coil around at the end and reached to the small of her back. She was wearing a business skirt, and a black jacket over a white dress shirt.

"I am Kelda, Assistant manager of Port Midnight, how May I help you?" she asked.

Sporosso walked calmly up to her and said, "Yes, miss, I am Captain Scpello Sporosso. I have come to ask for a chance to give your manager a business proposition."

The woman simply stood there and said "I'm sorry, the manager isn't here. He is on leave from business due to a small illness."

"Oh," said Eltu, "So that means you're in charge?"

"Yes, I am in charge of any and all businesses transpiring until the manager returns. However it's a Sunday so no business has been made today, so noone is around. The only people inside are our cleaning crew and I am managing them."

"Oh, well in that case," Sporosso whipped out one of his pistols and leveled it at the woman's forehead, said woman seemed unaffected by this display "Then we'll just go ahead with plan B."

Sporosso turned to the crew behind him and yelled out, "Alright men! This is the chance to prove your mettle! All you that have just joined, make me proud to call you Emerald Pirates! Get in there and grab everyone you can find, then bring them out here! Make me proud boys!"

"HURRRRAHHHHH!" The crew yelled out as they charged forward and into the building.

"What's going on?" Alden asked startled by the change in events.

"We're ransacking the place, so come on! YEEEEEEE-HAAAAA!" Peaky charged forward with the rest of the crew, Alden followed soon after. They stormed into the building and found cleaning ladies and janitors, scrubbing and polishing vases and pictures, doing their work. Every one of them that were found were grabbed and brought them outside as ordered. When a few of the more ambitious members ran to the storage shelves, they found the doors sealed and locked.

After a while everyone had cleared out of the place Alden was still inside looking around, trying to figure out what to do.

"What the hell am I suppose to do here? I don't wanna grab someone then lug'em off like a caveman."

"I have ALWAYS wanted to do this! YIP-YIP YAHOO! YIP-YIP-YAHOO! YAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Alden turned around to see Peaky rush past him with two maids over his shoulders, running like a mad man.

"The hell?" Alden rushed after him and out the door. On the outside wall all the cleaning personnel were being kept there by the cabin boys. Alden ran up to them and took his place next to Peaky.

"What the hell was that? You were hooting like a rabid owl!"

"Sorry, caught up in the moment."

"Men! Pay attention!" Eltu shouted, the cabin boys all turned to look at their crew mates. Sporosso stepped forward and looked over at all of those in front of him.

"Gentlemen, you have my thanks, and my pride. You've all done well and are all appreciated for your efforts, we couldn't have done it without you. However, those efforts...are no longer needed. MEN!"

All the crew raised their pistols at the cabin boys and cleaning crew. Causing different reaction to rise.

"What the hell?" "What are you doing?" "Whats going on?"

Sporosso spoke again, "Sorry boys but there's quite a bit of treasure in those halls, and we'd like to keep the sharing to a minimum of veteran crew members only."

"Crap, we're screwed." Peaky said.

Alden however had something more to say so he stepped forward, "What! Sporosso! You can't do this!"

"Why exactly is that? We're Pirates boy. We lie and steal all the time. That's what pirates do."

"Well yeah I get that, I would never had made the decision to be a pirate if I wasn't prepared to steal and cheat and even take a life if I had to. But turning on the men you inducted into your crew? The men who became the equivalent of brothers in arms the instant you told them welcome aboard? BULLSHIT! This is not what pirates do! What about what you said about becoming a legendary crew, and being known world wide?"

"Boy, we will be world renowned, we just took the Iron Lobby by ourselves! We planned everything out. We even got away with stealing the schematics for the place, we'll soon know every inch of this place as well as it's treasures, and besides, you really think that some pirate wannabes that have been on my ship for a week would really be that important?"

"Yes!" Alden shouted back. "The instant a man agrees to be a crew mate on a ship that's a contract bound in blood. At least that's what I've always been told."

Everyone had their eyes on Alden. Peaky, who was next to him, had an eyebrow raised.

"Pirates are more known for two things: the crimes they commit, and their commitment to each other and to the cause they reach for. Both crew and captain are willing to do anything to achieve the goals set to them! You think guys like the Yonkou Whitebeard and Shanks got to where they are by killing members of their own crew? To kill your own crew is practically the worst thing you could do as a pirate! If you do this Sporosso, what next? You'll kill the rest of the crew and run the port yourself?"

At this the crew seemed to laugh before they re aimed their pistols and rifles at their targets.

"Kid, we have an unspoken agreement, you take what you get, and keep what you claim. Hell the only reason I'm captain of this crew is because I'm the strongest in it, and no ones killed me to take my place."

"Then you're not pirates, your nothing but a bunch of asshole thugs waiting for someone to turn around so you can stab them in the back. There's nothing legendary about you and there never will be!"

Alden didn't see it but Peaky was smiling at every word he said.

"Well young Alden now you've gone and hurt our feelings. So we'll just be killing you now, shoot him first! Ready!"

Alden's eyes widened.

"Aim!"

He felt a hand grab the back of his shirt and pull.

"FIRE!"

The sound of multiple firing filled the air. But almost immediately afterwards, or at the same time Alden still can't tell when, Peaky had placed himself in front of Alden. A resounding sound of multiple 'ping' sounds were heard.

Alden had no idea what was happening. The Emerald Pirates all of a sudden had shocked looks on their faces and he could hear Kelda say the words, 'Cut it a bit too close.'

"Hey kid." Peaky said finally.

"Wha-huh?" Alden said, being brought back to reality.

"Your dad's name is Deer Harxey, isn't he?"

"Yeah how did you-Peaky what the hell's going on?"

"The guys one of my best employees. 'The instant a man agrees to be a crew mate on a ship that's a contract bound in blood,' I'd know those words anywhere. Good to see they came off on you."

All the Emerald Pirates faces turned white when they heard the word 'employee.'

"What do you mean employee, he works for the port. He-wait...YOUR-"

"Names not Peaky by the way." 'Peaky' turned to his side to look at Alden. He brought his hand up and removed his sunglasses and bandana. With them gone, his bright silver hair fell down on the sides of his head. When he opened his eyes Alden could see that he had bright cobalt blue colored eyes.

"My name is Batik D. Hurley. Owner, founder, and manager of Iron Lobby."

'Holy crap.' Was all that Alden could think. The Emerald Pirates However were more verbal.

"Peaky's the port owner? Hes the cold hearted monster-man?" "You gotta be kidding! The guys an idiot!" "What did he do just now? All I saw was the bullets bouncing off of him!"

"Oh, by the way," Said Hurley as he turned to face the pirate crew, "Thank you so much Sporosso for giving me the information I needed. I couldn't exactly make accurate claims if it hadn't been for you admitting to your crime."

"WHAT?" Sporosso yelled out. "What the hell is wrong with you? First your an idiot cabin boy, and now your the port owner?"

"Its called going undercover. Ya see my security birds, special little parrots who can record what they see and can repeat it as well as any Den Den Mushi, told me about a couple of idiots trying to steal from me. They told me how one was short, which I'm guessing its your little one right there," Hurley motioned towards Eltu, "And another of your crew who happened to be a tall fat fellow. So I went out searching for those that match the descriptions, and showed signs of suspicious behavior towards my business. Then I noticed you were trying to build up a bigger crew for reasons of needing a lot of people to pull off a raid. I stuck around for a while, heard your little conversation last night, and snuck off to give my faculty further instructions. I let the security have some time off knowing you'd want to shed some blood if you encountered anyone. Not only that I have this."

Hurley pulled out a small Den Den Mushi from his large leg pocket in his pants and held it. It then quoted 'Boy we will be world renowned, we just took port midnight by ourselves! We planned everything out. We even got away with stealing the schematics for the place, we'll soon know every inch of this place as well as it's treasures.'

"So now you have two choices, one is that you throw down your weapons, forfeit your Moon Map and let yourselves be blindfolded, transported to some random part of the ocean and never come back. Or, we can fight and you can have all those things done to you but you'll be sore and bruised."

"Captain, what do we do?" Eltu looked to his captain with clear worry on his face.

"Shoot again! Kill the bastard!"

All the shooters started to raise their rifles and pistols again. But as they did Hurley raised his hands which started to shine in the light.

"Oh yeah shoot again. Good idea. Come on seriously, does your train of thought have a caboose? Metallum Exertus!"

From around Hurley's hands, multiple shining sleek bullets shot out and broke the rifles and pistols from the hands of their owners.

"What the hell was that?" "His heart's not just metal, his arm is too!"

"You idiots! The man's obviously eaten a Devil Fruit!" Sporosso spat out in disdain.

"Yep, I ate the Kane Kane no Mi. Can't swim, but..." Hurley's entire body became bright gray and metallic looking. "I'm the trade off is well worth it."

The pirates grimaced at this. Hurley then turned to Alden and said, "Hey Alden, how bout you take care of Sporosso? I'll take out the grunts."

"What? Suddenly your a strategic fighter now? What the hell!"

"Now Foulton Brothers! SHOOT!"

Hurley and Alden looked to see that the three Foultons had unwrapped their weapons they had on their backs. All three of them had cannons on their shoulders. They all pulled at the string each had in their hands.

"Metallum Contego!" Hurley brought his hands together with his palms forward.

BANG!

The cannonballs had hit Hurley's body head on and caused a smoke cloud to rise up around him. Noone heard anything from the cloud.

"Devil fruit or no, three cannonballs at that range will take anyone out." Sporosso said while grinning at the removal of an obstacle in his path.

"Anyone but me apparently." A voice came from inside the dust cloud.

"What the hell?" Was Sporosso's eloquent comment.

As the dust cleared everyone in front of Hurley saw instead of his regular body, a towering ten foot tall metal shield with a smiley face made in an impish style with a jagged outline for the mouth and curved eyes. Those behind Hurley saw that Hurley's hands had became the shield from the back.

"This is what the Kane Kane no Mi does. It gives me the power of metal."

The Pirate crew all looked on as Hurley finished his thoughts.

"Now then, carrying on." Hurley said as his shield shrank back to his hands and raised his right arm in the air. "Metallum..." The pirates started to run from their current locations. "Anguis!"

Hurley brought down his right arm to slam his right fist into the ground where metal spikes seemed to grow from the ground making a line to the pirates as the stumbled out of the way.

"Don't just stand there Alden! Go kick some ass! Sporosso's getting away!"

Alden shook his head to shake off the apparent awe that had previously overcome him. He looked around to see that Sporosso was running away.

"He's not going anywhere!" Alden sprinted as fast as he could in Sporosso's direction. Hurley turned back to the crew that were getting back up.

"Ware were we? Oh yeah." Hurley placed his hand on the ground. "Metallum Carcer."

The ground started to rumble under the feet of the pirates. From the dirt below, multiple triangular metal structures grew around them and fit together to trap all of the crew in a large dome. All except for the three Foulton brothers and Eltu.

"Hey guys, you know what the golden rule is right?" Hurley lifted his right leg to show that four large ball shapes were growing on them. "Do unto others as you'd wish them to do unto you. So obviously..." Hurley pulled back his leg, "You guys are wanting a few cannonballs hurled at you to!"

"What?" The men asked at once.

"INCOMING!" Hurley swiped his leg forward and from his leg four metal balls flew out.

"AHHHHHHHH!" All four men screamed before being hit by the balls and thrown into the metal walls of their crew's prison knocking them out cold.

"Well, thats been taken care of. Now then, where'd the kid go?"

Sporosso was just a small way away from his ship, it was there that he could get to his lifeboats. He could sail out and use a Den Den Mushi to call for help from another crew. It was a good plan. At least it would if he reached his ship.

"Your not going any were!"

Sporosso looked behind him to see a pair of feet hit his face dead on.

Alden landed after he finished his drop kick to Sporosso's face.

"Agh! You damned pest!" Sporosso pulled from his jacket a pistol and fired it at Alden. Alden moved out of the way and kept running forward. Sporosso drew another pistol and fired again trying to hit Alden.

"Any man who doesn't give a damn about his own crew doesn't deserve to be a pirate in the first place!"

Sporosso kept firing his pistols and Alden kept dodging while moving forward,

"That's what pirates are you idiot! We kill whoever we want, even our own crew mates if we have to! That's how you get ahead in piracy, you take everything!"

"Wrong!" Alden finally got within the range he needed to be in.

Alden jumped forward, tucked in his legs and rolled. Sporosso pulled out a knife from his pants and brought it up to slash Alden but Alden's feet shot out, hitting Sporosso in the stomach sending him backwards. Alden rolled back to stand up and ran at Sporosso one more time just as he was drawing a pistol.

"Burning..." Alden spun right on his left foot and lifted his right leg with his right foot blazing bright red.

"DIE!" Sporosso screamed as he brought up his pistol, but he was too slow.

"ROUND!"

Alden's blazing right foot connected to the side of Sporosso's head hard enough for a few teeth to pop out of his mouth from the impact. Sporosso dropped to the ground with eyes blank white.

"Pirates are free. Free of laws, free to do whatever the hell they want. To live a life were noone can tell them what to do, or what to say. But to treat your crew as you did, to say that killing them is something a real pirate does? That's something you are never suppost to do. That guy back there? He's nuts but at least he's got the brains to know what a pirate really is from what I can see. He made this place a haven for pirates. He made it a place were we can continue being real pirates. You and the rest of your pretend pirate crew obviously don't belong here."

"Well said."

Alden turned around to see Hurley walking up to him. "Looks like your old man's philosophies came off on you pretty well kid."

"So, what are ya gonna do with him?" Alden asked motioning to Sporosso.

"Well...I'll send him on his way."

"But won't he just come back?"

"Nope, the way I can make it, he'll never come back here."

"How? If he knows were the-"

"GYAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

Behind Hurley Sporosso had gotten back up and launched himself at Hurley with a knife in his hands. He got to him and lunged. But instead of feeling the blade pierce his flesh, Sporosso heard a distinct 'ka-chink'. That was when he noticed the blade had broken off because Hurley's body had turned completely to metal.

"Oh, forgot to mention, my Devil Fruit is a logia power. One of the only ones where the guy who eats it stays as a solid. So you can't really hurt me like that. Sorry."

Sporosso started to walk backwards while he looked at Hurley and Alden, then turned around and ran.

"Hey! Get back here!" Alden was about to run again but Hurley stopped him.

"I got it. Metallum Haustrum!" Hurley's arms became huge in size as they thickened on the forearm and the elbow extended backwards forming piston-like arms, and his right arm shot out to Sporosso. Hurley's right arm grew enough to grab Sporosso's leg while his left stayed the same size. Hurley lifted Sporosso off the ground and pulled him back by retracting his arm.

"Captain Sporosso of the Emerald Pirates you are hereby asked," Hurley pulled back his left arm and made a fist with thick studs on the knuckles, "TO LEAVE MY ISLAND!"

BANG!

Hurley's brought his left arm around to punch Sporosso in the gut downward, and on impact his piston arm pushed in and sent Sporosso into the ground hard enough to make the ground crack and fly up around him. He lied there on his ground with a blank look on his face and blood on his mouth.

"Ah, much better." Hurley whiped his hands on each other then turned to Alden. "Hey can I talk to you tomorrow?"

"What?" Hurley took out a card from his pocket and gave it to Alden.

"Show that to the doorman at my office. Kelda will show you the way to the conference room. I'd like to have a few words with you."

Hurley then pulled Sporosso out of the ground by grabbing the back of his jacket. "See ya later!"

"Hey wait!" Alden started but Hurley had used his piston arms to reach upwards to the top of the walls separating the docks from the residential area. Alden could only think of one word to say now.

"Crap"

The Next Day

"Finally, I got one of my own." Alden said while thinking of the boat he had just purchased. Or at least, one could guess you could call it a boat. It was an exuberant mix of colors because of the different woods used to build it. It had one sail that was rolled up.

He was currently walking up to the main gates of Hurley's towering building. Unlike yesterday, he saw guards at the front gates.

"Please state your name and business." said one.

Alden pulled the card out from his pocket and said "Uh, your boss gave this to me yesterday. It says that I'm suppose to be here at this time and-"

"Please go right ahead sir, your expected by miss Kelda."

"Oh. Ok then." Alden, now having permission, walked on. He entered the main door and stood in a large hallway with a reception desk off to the right. At the desk was Kelda.

"Um, miss? I-"

"Follow me please."

'Ok then.' Alden thought as he followed along. They went through a long hallway, and went up a set of spiraling stairs. They entered another hallway that lead to a door.

Kelda stopped, turned to him and said, "Mr. Batik has much work to do before the day is done, so whatever he asks you give him a quick, clear answer to shorten the time this meeting will take."

"Yes ma'am."

Kelda opened the door and motioned for him to go inside and he obliged. When Alden entered, the first thing he noticed was a large map right in front of him on the wall. It was like every other map he had seen but he noticed one minor thing. There was an island that usually wasn't there on other maps. He looked to his left and looked out the huge window that made up the wall on that side. He could see practically the entire island from up here.

"Nice view." Alden commented.

"Ya'think?"

"GYAHHHH!"

Alden jumped almost ten feet in the air when Hurley's voice spoke into his ear.

"Where the hell did you come from?"

"Me? I've been here. You were the one that came in all spaced out like a school boy looking at the girl he likes."

Hurley was now dressed in black pants, grey-tipped boots, and a black tucked in button up shirt. His hair was no longer flat but styled to have a more wild look and he had a single bang on the right side of his face.

"Geez. What did you want to see me for anyway?"

"Oh that's simple. Come over here." Hurley walked back to the other side of the room were a large desk was. Hurley took his place on one side, while Alden sat on the other side. "Ya see, the way I figure, you helped me save my port, my business, and my people here at the office. So I feel I need to repay you. So state something you'd like from the port, and you get it, free of charge."

"Wow, so I could have anything?" Alden asked eagerly.

"Yep, so long as it's within my power to give it to you."

Alden started to think hard on this. What could he need?

"Well, actually you probably wouldn't be able to give me what I've been looking for."

"Oh, hows that?"

"Well, for so long now I've been dreaming of one thing. I want to be part of a pirate crew so great, that they become legends. I thought the Emeralds were a crew that could become like that because of my own ambition I guess. What happened to them anyway?"

"I sent them on their way. After I gathered them up I had them blind folded and shipped off in their ship and put somewhere far away." Hurley said with a smile on his face.

"But won't they come back?"

"Nope, I revoked their Moon Maps. They won't be able to come back here again." Hurley still had a smile on his face.

"But what about a log pose? Wouldn't they come back with one of those?"

"Nope, the island has metal pillars around it, which disturbs the natural magnetic field the island has, and if that wasn't difficult enough, inside those pillars are special magnets that are of the same polar type that a log pose uses to find islands. That way..."

"A log Pose will point the other way." Alden answered.

"Exactly. So... you say you want to be part of a crew that becomes legendary right? Why not just try to make a crew like that?"

"Hey, I'm a good fighter, I know that. But I couldn't lead a horse to water. I know, I tried. I'd rather be content helping out someone who knows what he's doing."

"Well I guess I can relate to your dreams. Before I made the port, I wanted to be a pirate that even the World Government was afraid of."

"That's a big goal don't ya think?" Alden asked with the utmost curiosity.

"Well I wanted to be big, and you couldn't get any bigger than someone even the Government is afraid of. But I decided that maybe settling for helping others achieve their dreams by establishing the port was good enough."

"Well all due respect Mr. Batik, I-"

"Please, call me Hurley. Only Kelda calls be Mr. Batik. Shes enough of a stick as it is, I dread to think what would happen if she knew her influence got to someone."

"Well, Hurley, as I was saying, with all due respect I don't want to settle for anything less than what I have been striving for. But as for your offer, I could use some food and supplies for my trip."

Hurley looked at Alden and smiled.

"Very well. Go on down to the market. I'll join you shortly to authenticate the free budget." Hurley got up from his seat and walked to the door. "I just need to clear some things up with my assistant and I'll be down shortly."

"Alright, and thank you."

Hurley looked back at Alden and said "No, no...Thank You."

Alden wondered why that caused a small shiver to go down his spine, but thought to put it behind him as he walked down the stairs.

The Market, an hour later

"Alright, that should do it. Now to wait." Alden had just finished his list of supplies as he out the last water jug into his bag. Now all he had to do was wait for Hurley. During that time he kept thinking, what was the Grand Line going to be like? What sort of Interesting people were out there? What would he do to make a name for himself as well as the crew he'd be a part of?

"Is spacing off one of your hobbies?" said a voice behind Alden, making him jump from his spot again.

"For the love of- Do you enjoy scaring people? And what's with the hat?"

Hurley was now dressed in a large coat that reached down to his thighs and had a furred collar, and on his head was a hat that swept down in front of his face in between his eyes. In the back the hat swept back into two 'points.'

"What? I like it. Now then, good evening sir." Hurley said while turning to the vendor.

The vendor practically jumped when he saw who was talking to him.

"Mr. Ba-"

"NO, NO! Not Mister anything! You know my name."

"Ahem, ah, Hurley! Good to see you again sir? How can I help you?"

"Simple." Hurley reached into his pocket and pulled out some bills, "The kid's stuff is on me."

"Yes sir!" The vendor took the bills and stored them in his money box.

As Alden and Hurley walked on Alden asked, "That was how you were going to give me stuff? By buying it for me?"

"Well It's all business. I can't just go up to a guy who's trying to sell things to put food in his stomach, and shoes on his feet can I?"

"Ya got a point there."

They continued to walk until they reached the docks.

"So where's your ship?" Hurley asked as he walked a bit more ahead of Alden.

"Why do you ask?" Alden replied.

"Well, If I'm going to be It's Captain I have to know what It looks like."

Alden dropped his bag.

"WHAT?"

Hurley turned around to face Alden and said "What? I'm experienced. Hell, I've been on the waters since I was a kid. The crew I came to the grand line with said I was one of the best crewman they've ever had."

"I'm not wondering weather or not you've got experience, I'm wondering how the hell you came to this decision!"

"What can I say? You inspired me. I left my dreams unfulfilled, all because I settled for less. My meeting you has shown me that I made a big mistake. It's time I got back into the business!"

"Bu-bu-but what about this business? Your port?"

"I'm having Kelda be in charge while I'm gone. So wheres the ship?"

"Hey wait you can't just say 'I think I'll trade this job for what's behind door #1.' You got to think things through!" Alden insisted.

"I did, thats what took me so long before I got to you from the office. But seriously wheres the ship?"

"Over there." Alden motioned over to his boat.

Hurley looked at it for a while and said, "Oh, oh, ohhhh I don't think so. Don't worry, I came prepared."

"Wait whats wrong with it?"

"I said 'wheres your ship' not wheres your boat.'"

"What's wrong with my Boat then?"

"It's a price of crap that's what."

"Hey I bought it at your port! What's that tell you?"

"That I control the port, and not those that sell within it, and You obviously can't tell when your being Jipped."

"I wasn't jipped!"

"Oh really?" Hurley walked onto the boat and grabbed the rope holding the sail closed and pulled.

"Schreee, schreee!"

"Ah! What the hell!" Alden cried.

The instant the sail came loose a few bats came flying out as well as a number of moths, and dirt.

"Oh my bad, you didn't get jipped at all," Hurley looked at the sail. "See? Its only got one hole in it. That's manageable."

Alden stared at Hurley.

"Follow me."

"Hey wait a sec! You can't be my Captain!"

"Why not? Our goals help each other right? I become a famous pirate wanted by all law enforcement agencies in the world, except my own, and you get to be the first mate of said crew!"

"But, hey first mate. Wait! No! You still can't be my captain cause your crazy!"

"Hey, first off, if I am anything I am Insane. Not crazy. There's a difference. Insane people know what they're doing when they're doing it. Crazy people don't know whats even going on around them. I know what I'm doing." Hurley turned around again away from Alden. "I think."

"What was that?"

"Nothing. Come over here. It's right over here."

"What is?"

"Our ship."

Floating in the water was a great black vessel with dark brown railing, golden ornate designs towards the front. The back was raised with two decks and connected to the main deck by strong looking metal beams and support wires. The sails were furled and white. Tied to the dock was the walking plank onto the ship. Hurley and Alden both walked up it and boarded the ship.

"It's beautiful!" Alden said in admiration.

"It's named the Ocean Caesar."

"Ocean Caesar?"

"An imperial ruler. Thought it would be fitting for the ship of a legendary crew. Been my own personal home. Much better place than the drafty office. Fully stocked with food, water, and supplies for all purposes. Its ready and rar'n to go."

Alden looked over at Hurley. "Your really serious aren't you?"

"As serious as I can be friend."

"Can we pilot this thing by ourselves? Just two people?"

"Yep, and if we can get ourselves some more crew mates, she'll be unstoppable."

"Uh, we'll need a marksman for the guns, a chart man so we'll actually know where we're going, a lookout, cook, treasurer-"

"Ah! I can do that! Been managing a port for ten years I can keep good track of money and spoils. Especially mine cause I've got a lot."

"A doctor, a quartermaster, a-a-a-"

"Music! We'll need music to keep us entertained! That or a monkey!"

Alden stared at Hurley.

"I've had good experiences with monkeys in the past. Trust me, give them some grog, some fruit, and a sword, spin him around and let 'em fly and you wil have entertainment for hours."

"I won't ask. But when can we get this thing going?"

"How bout now?"

"Seriously?"

"Why would I joke? First Mate Alden! Weigh anchor!"

"YES!" Alden shot over to the crank and started to pull.

Hurley went to the edge of the boat and readied the plank to be pulled back in. Alden helped with it as soon as he was done with the anchor. Within minutes the ship was heading out into the waters of the world with Hurley at the helm.

"So what are we going to call ourselves?" Alden asked Hurley while unfurling the sails.

"I was thinking 'The Steel Will Pirates.' It's mysterious, classy, and shows just how strongly we want to achieve our goals."

"And it's associated with the name of your Port."

"We came from there didn't we?"

"Good point. So...you gonna say something?"

"Like what?"

"I don't know. Its out first day so I just thought we'd say something to commemorate the day."

"What should I say? 'Drink up me harties Yo-ho?' Do you have any idea how cliche that sounds?"

"Well shouldn't we say something?"

"Um...alright hows this. Ahem,"

'Please let this be good.' Alden thought.

"Today, we set our sail for the first time. Today, we roar out, and into the world. Tonight, we shall sleep soundly knowing that our dreams fly with us on the wind. Tomarrow, we shall rise up, and greet the dawn of our lives new beginning. All we ask from the world, is to grant a grand future for us. Alden Harxey, and Batik Desuhari Hurley."

Alden looked to Hurley with surprise. "Your middle name's Desuhari?" he asked.

"Yeah, what ya think? That the 'D' was there just alone in my name?" Hurley laughed a little bit "So how was the speech?" Hurley asked.

"Good, but the hat kind of ruins it."

Hurley just stared back at Alden.

"Your just jealous"

And so comes to pass, the fist chapter of the Midnight Pirates. What awaits them, we'll just have to wait and see.

-  
>Metallum: Metal<p>

Exertus: Bullet/projectile

Cotengo: Shield

Anguis: Serpent

Carcer: Prison

Haustrum: Piston


	2. Devil's Garden

I don't own One Piece, and for those wondering Hurley's attacks are spoken in old Latin, just sounded cool and its working out so far.

Alden stared over at Hurley as he sat at the table reading the map he had set out before both of them with a compass in his hand.

"So where's our first stop?" Alden asked.

Without looking up Hurley said, "Well, we need a crew. We wont last very long just as two men. We will need the following. A physician for our health, a quartermaster to manage our supplies, a cook to feed us the supplies, a shipwright in case we need to make repairs as well as get this ship back to how it was when I got it, a lookout for obvious reasons, it would be nice to have a musician for entertainment and stuff but above all we need a navigator. Or else we are lost."

"A navigator?" Alden started, "I thought you were guiding us by the map?"

"Nope I've just been thinking while staring at this map. In truth I could never really tell a map from a streak mark."

"WHAT? You mean you've been staring at the map this entire time just thinking stuff up?"

"Mmmmmm, pretty much yeah."

Alden stared at Hurley with widened eyes and an open mouth. "What the hell? Give me that!"

Alden grabbed the map and placed it in front of him and placed the compass next to it.

"Oh you got some navigation skills?" Hurley asked.

"A little, my dad taught me a few tricks. I can figure out how to get to an island nearby and figure out the distance but only to a certain extent."

"Ya'know I got a feeling you won't need to figure anything out." Hurley said.

"Why's that?" Alden said not looking up from the map.

"Well, look to my right."

Alden lifted his head and looked over in the said direction. In the distance there was an island.

"Uhhh, saved by chance I guess." Alden said.

After about fifteen minutes the Ocean Caesar had docked into the island. When they walked down onto the wooden dock they noticed that the dock was devoid of life.

"Shouldn't there be people here?" Alden said, "Look at the place. It's deserted."

Indeed there was no life to bee seen. All the buildings around them looked ancient with vines and plants growing on and over them. The windows were all cracked and open, roofs were coated with moss, and the boats in the water had their ropes intertwined with thorned vines. All the buildings were engrossed with plant life from the forest at the edge of the small dock.

"This has 'creepy' written all over it." Hurley said quietly. "Something about this place seems...I'm not sure, off. Come on."

"'Come on?' 'Come on' were?" Alden walked up to Hurley as he walked near a building and peeked into a window. "What are you looking for?"

"Not 'looking for,' it's what I'm 'looking at.'"

"What's in there?"

Hurley backed away and started to fast walk back to the ship. "Oh, nothing."

CRASH!

The window's old glass broke out as what seemed like a branch had just burst out of the window.

"What the hell?" Alden started to run back to the ship but as he reached Hurley, the dock seemed to grow spikes that blocked the walkway. "What's going on?"

"Apparently, somebody pissed mother nature off big time. Metallum Ensis!" Hurley's right palm grew out a long, sleek blade which he grabbed and started to cut at the spikes. "Jeez, why the hell is this happening to me? I recycle!"

As Hurley kept cutting down the wooden spikes, more came up, although these were closer to him. Then more came out near his feet so he turned to his metal form. "Crap. Alden move backwards! These spikes can't hurt my body but last I knew you were still squishy soft. I'll carve a path and when we get the chance start running!"

"Got it!" Alden ran back to the end of the walkway and watched as Hurley kept cutting down the spikes that kept growing from the dock. After a few minutes of this there were still no end to the spikes continuous growth.

"That's it I've had enough. Metallum Talea!"

A path of metal shot forward on the ground from Hurley's hands with a sharp edge and the spikes that grew from the ground were all cut at the base. Then Hurley motioned with his hands to point his fingers up and outwards to form spikes on either side of the path the stab into any wooden spikes trying to grow onto it. "Ok, run for it!" Hurley took off down the path down the dock and stopped when he hit the ship, however he noticed that Alden wasn't around.

"Hurley! I could use some help!"

Hurley looked back towards the dock and saw Alden fighting off what looked like roots. They kept trying to impale him or strangle him but Alden was jumping and pulling them off and away from him. Then one of them had wrapped around his foot. The root then pulled away from Alden, causing him to fall onto his stomach. The root continued to pull, taking Alden towards the forest.

"Crap! Hang on man I'm mov'n, Durus Via!" Hurley jumped and made a metal pillar from his feet at the dock and used it as a slide to get to Alden, who had been trying to untangle the root from his ankle. Hurley had nearly gotten to Alden when a vine had wrapped around him and pulled back. "Dammit! Let me go!" Hurley used his sword to cut off the vine but he didn't think about the fact that he was up in the air. He fell down towards the spikes below him and turned into his metal form again.

CRASH!

Hurley fell through the dock and into the mud. He pulled himself free from it and stood up.

"Awwww damn it! These are some of my good clothes." Hurley took his hat and picked what mud on it was off, then he froze. "Wait...what the hell am I doing? Alden!"

Hurley made a metal pillar to stand on and shot up through the dock again. He couldn't see Alden anywhere.

"Oh no." The vines, roots, and other plant life seemed to grow up to Hurley. "Piece of crap, wormy son of a bitch, stupid ass flora! Ya made me look bad on my first day as Captain! Metallum Pegma!"

The top of the slide Hurley was on spread out into a giant square platform. Hurley jumped up and when he landed, the pillar holding up the platform rapidly nailed itself down. The platform going down rapidly along with it, squashed all the plant life under it. He then started running to the edge of the forest were he last saw Alden. He looked around when he got there.

"What the hell is this place?" Hurley pulled out the map and looked for the island that they had landed on. It read as follows.

"The Devil's Garden..." Hurley calmly looked up to the heavens. Then he put the map away, and ran into the forest. When he disappeared into the forest this was heard.

"DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN!"

-  
>Meanwhile...<p>

Alden was dragged to lord knows how far into the forest. He was still trying to get the root wrapped around his foot off, but the damned thing was so strong. Alden was a muscular guy sure, but his human strength could only go so far. Though that wasn't keeping him from fighting back.

"Dammit! Let go!" Alden was pulling and straining as hard as he could to get the root off of him but It wouldn't budge. He leaned back finally to take a breath. "Okay fine, Burning..."

Alden pulled back his hand and it started to become covered in bright red fire but before he could do anything another root had wrapped around his throat. Instinctively he grabbed at it but the arm he was going to use to free himself became ensnared too.

'What the hell is this thing? A dominatrix weed? Oh crap, loosing consciousness...'

Alden was starting to see black collapse in on his vision as he just lay there, arms, throat, and legs bound and he was starting to have greater trouble breathing.

'Crap...'

He soon lost sight and was losing thought. But suddenly he heard a strange noise.

Whum-crk-crk-crk!

That was when Alden lost consciousness.

-  
>Back in the Forest<p>

"Oh. My. Shit."

Hurley was standing in the forest looking, open mouthed, up at a tree.

A living tree. A walking tree. A ticked off tree apparently.

The tree was currently pulling up it's whip like branches, getting ready to slam it down.

"You don't want to do that." Hurley said pointing to the tree's whip arm.

The tree just pulled it back further.

"I'm serious. You really don't want to do that."

The tree let the arm loose.

-  
>A small shack<p>

Alden slowly opened his eyes, breathing slowly as well. He put up his arms to look at his hands, other than the wrists having marks, they seemed to be fine. They even had some strange ointment on them. He continued to breath slowly as he turned his head. He looked to see that he seemed to be in a small shack.

There was a table in the corner with two chairs and a vase on it with a flower inside. He continued to look around and saw on the far wall that there was a map pinned to it. He looked down to his feet to see that on his leg that had been bound there was the same ointment that was on his wrists.

Alden brought his hands to his hair and sighed.

"Awake finally?"

Alden shot up, then lied back down as he gained a throbbing headache the instant he sat up.

"Who's there?"

"Either tilt your head back or roll over to your stomach. Be careful though, you've been under for about thirty minutes. I can imagine the headache you have, but I'd hate to imagine it if it got worse."

Alden slowly and carefully rolled over onto his stomach and looked up.

At the head of the bed was a tall man in a chair reading a book. He had on black pants with green swirls going down the legs in a line. His camo-colored shirt was baggy and the sleeve that Alden could see was long enough to reach to the middle of his forearm. His hair was short and an auburn color.

"Who're you?" Alden asked.

The stranger closed his book and looked to Alden.

"My name is William J. Stuart, and you buddy should not have come here."

"Ugh, why's that? Besides the killer plants."

"The Devil's Garden doesn't take too kindly to strangers. Also if you don't mind me asking, who are you and why are you here anyway?"

"My name's Alden Harxey. I came here for a stop to get some bearings. What're you doing here?"

"Besides saving your life? Research. I've been here for a while trying to figure out why the plants here are so violent, for lack of a better word."

"Is there anyone else here? A navigator, or mapmaker, or a merchant specifically?"

"Sorry to say, no bodies been on the island in years. By my studies, the last person that was here died about ten years ago. I came here three years ago. So I'm afraid you won't be able to find anyone on this island. But if you'd like a map, I can supply you with one."

"Actually its not the map were looking for, it's a who. We got maps but we just don't know how to read them."

"Your telling me that you go around on the ocean without a map? Your either very smart of very stupid."

"I guess I can boast smarts but Hurley-" Alden then remembered, "HURLEY!"

"Who?"

-  
>Back in the Forest<p>

The living tree was flat on the ground and even though you couldn't see any eyes on it, it had a pair of X's on its bark. It also had multiple sharp metal blades sticking out of it.

Hurley was sitting on it and looked to his left, then his right and said, "Ya'see? I tried to warn you! But you see what you made me do?"

-  
>Stuart's Place<p>

"So your captain's out there in the wilderness. Oh boy. I guess I'll have to go get him. No telling how he'll be killed if I don't get to him."

"I'll come with you." Alden said as he started to rise up from the bed.

"You think you can keep up, or are well enough to think straight?"

Alden stood on both feet not teetering a bit. "Yeah I think so." He continued on to get his boots on.

"Alright then just give me a moment to get my things."

Stuart got up and walked to a shelf that stood against the wall on the far side of the shack. It was then Alden noticed that Stuart's left arm was wooden.

"You uh, lose your arm here?" he asked.

"Hmm? Oh this?" Stuart held up his left arm, "Oh no, I was born without my left arm so a prosthetic one was given to me. It has it's plethora of uses."

Alden looked over Stuart's shoulder to see on the shelf, there were numerous maps, all of them had mostly a green area covering it.

"Maps of the island?"

"For the most part. Alright lets go."

-  
>Back to Hurley<p>

"What the hell is this?"

Hurley was standing in front of a structure he had never seen before. A giant wall of intertwined vines was standing right before him. He moved forward and touched the wall with his metal hand. When he did the vines suddenly started to wriggle and writhe around in front of him.

"Wha- what'd I do, touch it's rash?"

Then the wall opened up a circle and in the dark hole Hurley could hear the sound of something coming through it.

"Alright, another one of those jolly green giants? Bring it on."

But what came out was not a tree-man as Hurley had thought. Instead a giant worm-like green vine came out if it and reared up, showing off the spines it had lining it's length.

"Oh fuck me."

Then the tip of it split open and revealed rows of jagged thorns obviously meant to act as teeth.

"Oh fuck me runn'n!"

The vine then shot forward after Hurley, who had turned and tried to make a metal slide but was there wasn't any room because of the dense forest. As he ran as fast as he could he thought up something...

"Disregard last statement! DISREGARD LAST STATEMENT!"

-  
>Back to Alden and Stuart<p>

Both men walked out the door and Alden noticed something very strange, the area around the shack was surrounded by dirt ground and behind the shack there was a small pond. There were no vines or anything anywhere, Alden halfway figured that he'd have to fight off the roots again.

"What's with the mercy from the vines?"

"Not sure, I have a few theory's but I still can't figure it out."

After a half hour of walking Alden decided to ask a question he had been wanting to ask.

"Hey uh..." Alden started.

"Yes?" Stuart replied looking back.

"You said you came here for research, what possessed you to come here?" He asked.

"I'm something of a botanist by profession. One in a large family. So when I heard of an island with killer plants, I had to investigate. Only untill my ship was destroyed did I realize, I may have made a mistake."

"Your a botanist?"

"In one trade, I am also a marine biologist, scientist, therapist, and cartographer."

Bells had just gone off in Alden's head.

"So what about you, you don't look like a Navy man, so I'm guessing your a pirate?" Stuart asked.

"Yep. But don't worry, I'm a good guy, I won't do anything unless you give me reason too."

"Heh, understood Mr. Good Guy Pirate." Stuart laughed.

"Say, you've got one impressive resume. You said you were a cartographer?"

"Yes."

"That mean you read maps as well as make them right? I think my captain might have something to ask you. You see-"

"You could use a navigator, right?"

"How'd you figure it out?"

"You said earlier that neither you or your captain could read a map very well, you came to this island looking for directions, and while you did so you had no idea that this notorious island had killer plants. It wasn't that hard to piece those puzzle parts together."

Alden looked impressed. 'This guy's damn smart. We defiantly could use a guy like him' "Sooooo... uh, what do-"

"Join the crew of, from what I can guess from you, some pirates in need of someone to be their navigator and fill said position. Wouldn't be so bad a job change. But I'm needed here right now. I have to find out whatever is causing these plants to act like this. Afraid I'm stubborn like that. Family trait I picked up."

"Ah. I can understand that. But what if we helped you? I'm pretty sure we could lend some helpful assistance."

"Tell you what, you and your Captain help me figure this mystery, and I'll think about joining your crew. I havn't really planned on doing anything after I got off the island so anything's up in the air."

"Alright! We've got ourselves some plans. So Stuart, what are we going to do to track my captain?"

"Well first off call me Stuie. Stuart's too uptight. Second," Stuart stopped and with his wooden arm pulled something out of the tree next to him. "You know who's this is? I've never kept something like this around here before."

Stuart turned and held out to Alden a sharp metal blade.

"And I've sure as hell never seen that before." Stuart motioned to the other side of Alden.

There, a large human shaped tree with whip-like branches for arms was on the ground, speared by more of the metal blades.

"Yep, my captain's been here alright. This is from his Devil Fruit powers."

"Then my best guess is he's nearby or possibly he's-"

"!"

Stuart never got to finish as both he and Alden heard a scream getting louder from an area to their right. They looked to the said area and saw Hurley, running like a madman.

"Hurley! Where've you been! What the hell's going on?"

Hurley ran past them as he shouted his answer. "RUN! RUN! RUN! RUN! RUN! RUN! RUN! BIG PLANTS! BIG TEETH! BIG PLANTS WITH BIG FRIGGEN TEETH!"

"Plants with teeth?" Stuart questioned. He and Alden looked back to were Hurley had come from and saw the worm-vine plowing through the forest towards them.

"Plants with teeth!" Alden started to run with Hurley, but Stuart stayed were he was. "What are you doing!"

Stuart lifted his wooden hand over his head and slammed his fist into the ground. From right in front of him, the ground exploded upwards as a wall of wood formed. In a short few seconds, the wood shook as a giant slamming sound was heard.

Stuart pulled his arm from the ground and walked to the other side of the wood wall. He found the worm vine lying there like an unusable slinky. It's 'mouth' was open and green ooze was leaking from it.

Hurley and Alden had both stepped to other side as well to see what had happened to it. When they saw they turned to Stuart and Alden said, "What the hell was that?"

Stuart looked up with a little surprise on his face and said, "Oh, my bad. I forgot to tell you," He held up his wooden arm, "My arm is magic."

"...That would have been helpful! Were the hell'd this thing come from?"

"A way back I found a wall of plants, vines, and whole lot of green stuff. This thing came from the other side." Hurley explained.

"A wall of plants? Hang on a sec, I got an idea." Stuart said as he kneeled down. He placed his wood arm on the plant and closed his eyes.

"So who is this guy?" Hurley whispered to Alden.

"His names William J. Stuart. He's a botanist, among other professions, he's been here for about three years trying to figure out why the plants have been acting this way."

"He's been here for three years? Damn, talk about job dedication. What's his name again?""

"Stuart, but he likes to be called Stuie, and if all goes well he'll be our navigator."

"What? Oh sweet! So Stuie," Hurley started to ask, "Find out anything interesting?"

Stuart stood back up and said "It's hard to believe but I think I just finally found the cause of the plants acting so viciously."

"Wouldn't they be better if they didn't act at all?" Alden said.

"All we need to do is go back to that wall and try to get to the other side. Hurley, was it? You think you could take me there?"

"Sure, just follow me." Hurley started walking back the way he came. Then he stopped. He turned to look at Stuart, then quickly turned around then he started to snicker.

"Hurley what's wrong?"

"Nothing, it's just...oh I can't help it. Stuie,"

Stuart looked right at Hurley.

"...You've got magic wood! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!" Hurley was barely keeping on his feet as he was laughing so much.

"Ha, h-hey wait, Hurley what the hell?" Alden said wide eyed.

"Its ok, I thought the same thing when I finally thought about it. Laughed my ass off everytime. Don't worry, it gets old after about a week or so." Stuart said with a smile.

"Aha, ha, oh, I like this guy, come on lets get going." Hurley started walking again, still laughing a little every now and then.

-  
>A while later<p>

"I've been on this island for three years, how the hell did I miss this?" Stuart asked himself.

"Well I saw those maps you made, I think you mostly just stuck to the outer rim to the near middle of the island because of the plants." Alden replied.

Hurley, Stuart, and Alden were all standing in front of the wall of plant life. Stuart walked forward and placed his wooden hand on the wall and closed his eyes. Nothing happened.

"How come when I did that a worm-weed came after me trying to turn me into mulch." Hurley said.

"There's something behind this wall. Something old, and in pain. I need to get to in there."

"No problem, just stand back," Hurley stepped forward and crossed his arms, "Metallum,"

"Wait!" Stuart yelled.

Hurley was pretty sure he heard tires screech in his head.

"What?"

"I can get in there without major force, you would probably bring out something else that wouldn't mind eating us. Let me do it."

Stuart stepped forward and kneeled down. But before anything could happen, behind everyone three shapes came out of the forest. When they could be fully seen they looked to be masses of vines wrapped together into a humanoid form.

"Think you guys can keep them busy while I take care of this?" Stuart asked.

Hurley lifted his hands up. "These things? No problem, Metallum Anguis!" Hurley slammed his hands down and the ground in front of him grew a path of metal that sprouted spikes, stabbing through the stump-feet of the vine men.

"Ha! That was for ruining my clothes at the docks grassholes!"

Alden made his more physical approach, he ran to the now immobile opponents, jumped as hard as he could into the air.

"Burning Talon!" Alden swung his left foot out while it was covered in bright fire but instead of kicking it away the attack made two streaks of light that cut through the bodies of the vine beings.

Stuart however was concentrating on the task at hand. His hand was on the ground and his eyes still closed.

'How far down does this thing go? The bottom has to be- got it!'

From under the wall directly underground, it started to move upwards untill a wooden arch had fully risen from the ground and made an entry to the inside of the wall. Stuart ran into it without hesitation. Almost instantly afterwards, the vines covered the entryway.

"Alright he's in. Alden, take cover!"

Alden was didn't take the time to ask why as Hurley shot upwards on a metal pillar. So he ran to the other side of a nearby tree.

"Metallum..." Hurley jumped off the pillar. "IMBER!"

Hurley rotated his body in the air and as he did so, what seemed like an infinite number if pins shot from his body. On the ground the attacking vine men were all stuck in every inch of their plant bodies, so much so that they couldn't move their limbs.

Hurley landed and looked around at his work. "Not bad."

"Not bad? How the hell am I supposed to come out now when the entire ground level is an iron maiden?" Alden shouted.

"Hey, don't worry about it! I can fix it."

Hurley put his metal hands to the ground and from them metal spread out over the needles sticking up from the ground then retracted into Hurley's hands.

"There, now the grounds nice and smooth. Happy?"

"Oi. I hope Stuie's having more luck than this."

-  
>Inside the wall<p>

"Holy crap."

Stuart was looking at what had to be the biggest monster of a tree he had ever seen in his life. It had to be at least a hundred feet thick. But what else amazed him, or disturbed him, was the fast that at the base of the tree there were a large number of skeletons. He slowly walked up to get a better view of the corpses. He looked at all of them very carefully.

"Damn, looks like I found the people who once lived on the island. As for you," Stuart looked up to the tree, "Your still standing strong. Lets see what caused all this, and don't worry old one, I'm not gonna hurt you."

Stuart moved in between the skeletons to the trunk of the tree and placed his wooden hand on it and closed his eyes again.

'Can you hear me?' he thought. He opened his eyes to see himself standing in front of an old man in a large decorated chair. All around him there were the skeletons. The old man looked to Stuart under bushy eyebrows with sad eyes.

'Yes, I hear you human.'

'What did all this, the people, the island's plants becoming so vicious. Do you know what did it?' Stuart asked in a calm respectful voice.

'Yes, I did.'

'Why sir? What caused you to kill these people?'

'I DID NOT KILL MY OWN FRIENDS HUMAN!' The angry shout into Stuart's mind was like a hammer to his head. 'These people were killed by their own kind, horrible soulless, foul, humans seeking my power. You, I know what you come here for. You too wish for my power.

'Old one, I do not understand. I know nothing of you, I came here to stop the chaos that the plants here have been causing.'

'My children are not bringing chaos to this island, they are bringing peace.'

'I still don't understand, what could have happened to make you so angry?'

'I shall show you.'

The world around Stuart and the old man changed to that of a small village. It was connected to a small dock at the edge of a forest. Many pleasent looking people wandering about doing their business. But the surprising thing was, there were what looked to be humanoid beings made of stone, metal, and of course wood and plants.

'The people of the island were my friends, they watered me from a seed. I grew and had seen many die, then many born. The ages past until...'

"Pirates! Pirates are here! Get to the shelters!" A man had come running through the town screaming his head off. Behind him were more men, though they were noticeably different. They all had cruel smiles as they ran forward into the town.

"Kill them all! Find the tree!" One of them shouted.

Most of the people of the village ran into their biggest buildings. Though some of the men stayed behind along with a number of the humanoid constructs. They fought with the pirates and they were doing very well. The constructs seemed to not falter in any way, from any hit. Just when the townsmen seemed to be winning, the pirates retreated and a whistling was heard. Then an explosion sounded.

A ship off shore had fired on the town. As the men who were fighting were blasted down, their constructions fell after them. Almost every building had fell, the ones that hadn't had been set afire and were eventually crumbled.

Stuart looked to see the ship that had fired but could barely see anything through the smoke and fire. The only thing he could see was what looked like a huge ship bow that looked like a blade edge.

'That ship must be huge to have a bow that big, and the damage from one shot...the artillery is like nothing I've ever seen before.' Stuart's thoughts were broken when the pirates came back into the town. They began raiding the shelters and pulled out two people.

"Where's the tree?" One man asked.

He was tall, wore very baggy pants held up by two cloth belts and a black vest with gold colored around the shoulders. Around his wrists and ankles where thick black bracelets with intricate designs on them. His eyes were deep red and looked crazed with the large amount of veins on the whites of his eyes and he walked with his torso slightly leaning forward in an angry fashion making his mid length purple hair wave in the wind.

The short sword in his hand had a single edge and was curved with a guard was designed to look like claws.

"You will never find it! It's power does not belong to the likes of you!"

The pirate then took up his sword and cut down the villager. He then turned to the other one being held, a young girl of about ten years old.

"Where's the tree brat? Tell me or the same thing will happen to you!"

The little girl was too scared to answer. So in his anger, the pirate kicked her to the ground and brought up his sword again.

"Bida bida bida bida. Bida bida bida bida."

On the man's wrist a Den-Den Mushi started to ring. He brought it up to answer it.

"Yes sir?" The man asked.

"Have you found it?" A voice asked. A voice that did something to Stuart when he heard it. He couldn't really explain it but if he could put it in one way it would be...devastating. Like every word was spoken to take away all hope a person could have. Like he was being told his entire family had died.

"No sir. We're questioning the survivors now though."

"Don't bother, we want the tree not the natives. Bring them their ends."

"Understood sir!" The pirate closed the Den-Den Mushi and wordlessly swiped his sword sideways. The little girl's face became one of shock and stayed that way even when her vision changed from looking up at the pirate, to looking at her still sitting body.

When the pirates had finished their horrible act they were about to go out into the island, but didn't get the chance. From the ground around the pirates came the vine constructions. They attacked with their whip arms and started to end the pirates terror. Many of the men fell but the man who killed the man and little girl was among those that got away.

When the vines were done they pulled back. They took the bodies of the fallen pirates and threw them into the water.

The vine men then walked to the houses and took out the bodies of the village people and walked into the forest with them. They journeyed deep into the forest, were the vine men placed the bodies at the base of the great tree. Then the grass, and plants on the ground grew around the tree. It grew, and grew, and grew. The surrounding trees grew out their branches and intertwined with the forming wall until the wall had reached over the top of the tree itself.

The world soon returned to the scene of Stuart facing the old man again.

'I understand. You brought them here to honor them, you made the wall to protect yourself and their remains. As for the vine men and the killer plants, you used your power to protect the remains of their lives and the island themselves. I know what you are.'

'So now you come for my strength and to violate my friends. I shall not let this happen!'

'No wait! I mean you no harm! I may be human, but I have no intentions of taking anything from you, or desecrate your friends. I am not evil.'

'Your human allys destroy my warriors. Is that not evil?'

They only do so to defend themselves. They like many other humans, are not evil and cruel like the ones you faced so many years ago.'

'Prove to me your words.'

'Look into my mind and heart. I can show you how kind some humans are.'

In front of both the old man and Stuart came images of both Hurley and Alden. Alden talking to Stuart with honest and enthusiastic questions. Hurley running through the woods from the worm shouting for everyone to run, as well as when he found the hilarity in Stuart's arm. From Stuart came sheer confidence about Hurley and Alden.

'You...know them so little, yet you judge them with such confidence. Why?'

'Because many people in this world are so good natured, that you can notice just by looking at them...just like the people who saw you as their friend.'

The old man seemed to stare hard at Stuart.

'If you need more proof, take a look deeper into my mind.' Stuart closed his eyes and opened his mind once more. This time he showed the old soul before him his more personal memories.

'You have a most...interesting family. Such actions are confusing.'

'Yeah, uh, ahem. I guess you could say that.'

Silence.

'Please old one, I ask you to forgive humans. There are those who are evil yes, but as I said, there are many that have kindness in their hearts.'

'Hmmmm. You wish me to let you and your friends go?'

'And to be at peace.'

'My anger is not so easily deterred human.'

'Then may I suggest a declaration of trust, a deal'

-  
>Back with Hurley and Alden<p>

"So what do you think is happening inside there?" Alden asked.

"I don't know but he's been in there for a while." Hurley replied.

Then the wall started to shake.

"Ok, if this is another worm I swear I'm cutting the damn thing in half." Hurley braced himself.

"Trust me, that would be very bad." Stuie stepped forward as the wall fully descended. "Guys, I could use a hand."

"For what?" both Alden and Hurley asked.

"Putting some souls at ease." Stuart motioned to the skeletons at the base of the tree.

"So the tree is alive? I mean, thinking alive not just living?" Alden asked as he finished stacking the last rock on the pile.

"Yep, and for only he knows how long he's been protecting the island from everyone that came to it." Stuart said as he finished pouring the dirt.

"Well I guess giving his friends proper burials is one way to show you mean no harm." Hurley said as he patted down the grave's surface dirt.

"That and showing some good memories of good folks and family. Though I was kinda worried when I showed him mine." Stuart said.

"Why's that?" Hurley asked standing against his shovel.

"How do I put this? Hmm. Well, have you ever been thrown headfirst and made impact with a mountain goat?"

"Uhhhhhhh, no. BUT! But I have slammed my head into harder things. Thank you Mr. Whale." Hurley said that last part under his breath.

"What I can't figure out is why the heck people would kill an entire town just to get to a tree. I could understand it's power to make plants come to life but I don't think that they could take it anywhere." Alden said while he swept the sweat from his forehead. "Whats so special about it?"

"It's a Devil Tree." Stuart said simply.

Hurley tripped and fell. When he set himself back up he said "IT'S A FREAK'N WHAT!"

"What? Whats a Devil Tree?" Alden asked.

"Oh dear lords in heaven and devils in hell, you don't know what a Devil Tree is?" Hurley jumped up to grab Alden's shoulders and shake them. "A Devil Tree produces Devil Fruit!"

"What?" Alden's eyes bugged almost out of his head.

"Yep," Stuart began, "This tree produces a fruit that to my knowledge, has been lost to most of society. The fruit lets it's user make constructs from the material's they touch. Like making a body of whatever the one who ate it wants instantly. Like I saw in the tree's memories with all those people having constructs made of stone, wood and all sorts of stuff. Obviously it's a considerably powerful fruit. No wonder there weren't any vines or roots near my shack, the pond behind it was saltwater."

"A Hada Hada no Mi?" Alden asked.

"This is one of the greatest moments of my life! Do you have any idea how unbelievably rare it is to find one of these bad boys? The chances are one in universal odds." Hurley had stars in his eyes as he looked up at the tree dreamily. "Not only that but from what you just said it's a tree that bears TYPE DIFFERENTIAL FRUIT!"

"Type what?" Alden asked.

"Devil fruit that are immensely rare. Just as rare as Logia if not more so. Think of them like the 'Models' for Paramecia fruits."

"...Ok you still don't have me, what?" Alden questioned.

"Think of it this way, someone eats a fruit from the tree. They get the power to make bodies of whatever they want right?"

"Right."

"WRONG! They get to make bodies out of whatever the TYPE allows them. Hada Hada no Mi TYPE: Stone, or Hada Hada no Mi TYPE: Wood, or or or a Hada Hada no Mi TYPE: Metal. Hell I'm convinced Whitebeard's 3rd division commander Jozu has one made for jewels! WOOO HOOO! What a find guys!"

"Too bad it has to stay 'not found.'" Stuart said.

"AWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! Why the hell does it have to stay 'not found?'" Hurley whined.

"By your reaction to the news of the tree being a Devil Tree, you know what would happen if the world learned of it. Pirates and Navy would be flocking from everywhere to get it's fruit. That would break our deal."

"Gahhhh. Alright. I won't tell anyone. You won't either will you Alden?"

"Nope, a deals a deal as my dad said. Ahhhh. That's the last of em over here."

"I'm done." Stuart said.

"Same here." Hurley walked over in front of the tree. "Stay safe big guy."

THUNK!

"Ow!"

Hurley and Stuart looked over to see Alden holding his head. "What happened?" Hurley asked.

"Something just plopped itself into my head!" Alden leaned over to grab the said object, then froze. "Woah."

"What is it?" Stuart asked.

"Look at this." Alden held up an object that was yellow-green in color and had leaves on the top. It was a fruit.

"I think we just got a gift."

"Awesome! This old dude is alright." Hurley said.

"What are you gonna do with it? Eat it?" Stuart asked.

"Heck no. I like swimming."

"I'll take it! It'll go great with my collection." Hurley said.

"What collection?" Stuart asked.

"Were those rumors about you having an entire wall of Devil Fruit at your port for real?" Alden asked as he gave the fruit to Hurley.

"Well, I'm not saying that I have a wall full but I do have a few back home." Hurley said. "Well, thanks for the gift big guy. Live long and in peace. We got to get going."

"Farewell forest king." Alden said respectfully.

Stuart turned to the tree and made a movement with his hand on his chest then brought his index and middle fingers to his forehead, then pointed it at the tree before he walked off to join Alden and Hurley.

"What was that?" Hurley asked.

"It's a sign of respect. Many people of my belief do it."

"Which reminds me. I'd like to know more about you. Your history."

"Very well, I am 19 years old although I've been told I act too mature for my age, I was born without a left arm so my family used our magics to make a wooden prosthetic arm capable of performing a multitude of purposes such as moving other forms of wood, taking the shape of a weapon or tool as well as allow me communication with plants. The process of how I got the arm is that my family fused it to my body through our Druid magics."

"You're a Druid?" Alden asked, "What's that?"

"Druids, my friend, are nature folk. They are 'one with the world around them.' I've heard rumors about Druids that could control the weather." Hurley said.

"Yeah there were a few of us that could do that, but not at the scale you think we operate on."

"Well, I've been told things by you, I've been told good things by Alden, now I just have one question." Hurley said. They had finally reached the dock were Ocean Caesar had been set.

"You wanna be my Navigator?"

"Hmmmmm. Any benefits?" Stuart asked.

"Well you get to see the world, gain considerable wealth, and if all goes well you get to kick a whole bunch of Navy ass."

"Just one question then."

"Shoot." Hurley said open for any questions.

"Still think my 'Magical Wood' is funny?" Stuart asked.

"HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA AH AH AH HA! Dude, that will always be funny to me."

"Then the answer is yes. Just let me get a few things from my place."

"ALRIGHT! New crew mate! Woo, we got our navigator! Alden, weigh anchor and set us on our way."

After a small while, Stuart came back from his packing with a backpack. He walked up onto the ship and as it started to pull out of the dock, Stuart looked around to find no one else on board.

"So, where's the rest of the crew?"

"Don't worry, we'll find some people for those positions too." Hurley said as from the helm.

"You mean we don't have any other crew members?" Stuart asked.

"Not yet." Alden said while unfurling the sail.

"What have I gotten myself into?"

"I thought the same thing."

"You get the answer yet?"

"If I have, I've totally missed it"

Well another chapter done. The next one's in the works. Wish me luck, got a few things thought up. Now I just have to come up with a path to those ideas.  
>William J. Stuart "Stuie" is dedicated to one of my best and dearest friends and I hope both he and you viewers like what I did. By the way, I have decided to put up previews, so here's the first one.<p>

Next time:

Hurley: Guys, we have a problem!

Alden: What the hell is that?

Stuie: Can't hold this for long, we need to get to shore!

Next Chapter: The Dedicated Shipwright

Hurley: That was freaky, yet hot. I like it!

?: There's no ship I can't fix!

Translations Pegma-Platform Imber-Rain Ensis-Sword Durus Via-Hard Road Talea-Cutting


	3. A shipwrite with something to prove

Ok, third chapter. I don't own squat but Hurley. The new character is a creation of someone you can find on Deviantart named Tyshea. Anyway on with the chap.

Hurley was relaxing on the chair he had set up in front of the helm as he steered the ship with his feet.

"How is our heading Stuie?" he asked.

Stuart looked up from his map and said, "We're doing pretty good Captain. Next island ahead is Tebrun Island."

"Anything interesting on that island?" Alden asked while leaned against the ship's railing.

"Well the island is famous for their workmanship on ships, if that's of any importance." Stuart mentioned.

"Workmanship on ships huh, so they got some good shipwrights?" Hurley stood up and looked at Stuart.

"Well yes they are shipwrights, but they specialize in making specific ships for showmanship and travel. Cruise ships."

"Well that doesn't seem to be up our alley of inducing the need to piss one's pants does it? Where's the next closest island?"

"Well, from this island I'd say the next one would take us until near early morning to get to it."

"Think you can stay awake until then Captain?" Alden asked Hurley.

"Nah, I like to sleep. We'll pull in and sleep on Tebrun. How far exactly till we hit it?"

"From what I can tell, about an hour."

"Perfect, we'll get there, have some dinner go to bed and-Woah!" Hurley was interrupted as the entire boat shook.

"Gyaa! What the hell was that? I nearly went overboard!." Alden moved away from the railing to the middle of the ship.

"Did we hit something?" Hurley asked as he stood up.

"We shouldn't have, we're nowhere near land." Stuart got up from his chair.

"What the hell is that?" Alden asked as he saw a small piece of green in the water.

"Oh crap." Hurley was looking from the helm platform out into the water.

"What is it?" Stuart looked up then out into the water following Hurley's gaze.

"Its not what we hit, it's what hit us." Hurley looked to his shipmates and the side of his mouth twitched into a small smirk. "Either of you guys have experience with Sea Kings?"

"What?" Both men said in response.

FWOOOSH!

Behind Alden and Stuart the water surface broke to reveal the creature. It's back was lined with spines and it's mouth was a spear-like beak.

"Wow that's a big fish...thing." Stuart said gawking at the size of the creature. The beast leaned back and positioned itself for what looked to be a strike.

"You do what I think your gonna do, Your gonna regret it!" Hurley yelled when he started running to the deck. The Sea King's head was ready to shoot forward. "TO HELL WITH THAT! BASTARD I PAID THIRTY MILL FOR THIS SHIP AND YOU AINT GONNA BREAK IT! METALLUM,"

Hurley's arms turned to metal and became huge in size as they thickened on the forearm and the elbows extended backwards.

"HAUSTRUM!"

Hurley's right fist shot out from his forearm as the extension from his elbow moved through his forearm. The fist hit the Sea King in it's left jaw. Then Hurley pulled it back through his forearm and shot out his left fist to hit the King's right side of it's face. He continued to hit it at least five more times until the King finally backed off, it's face already starting to swell.

"Ha, that's right you fish bitch! You want some more?" Hurley set both arms to his side as he prepared to strike again.

The king pulled back and dove under in retreat.

"Yeah! Take that ya snakey bastard!" Hurley yelled as he turned his arms back to normal.

CRASH!

A loud breaking sound snapped Hurley out of his yelling and sent him falling forwards to fall on his face.

"Ow! Dang it what'd it do now?" Hurley ran over to the railing and looked over the edge. "Uh oh. Guys, we have a problem."

Alden and Stuart ran to the edge and looked over.

"The damned thing smashed open the ship!"

The side of the ship had been given a slash across it from the Sea King's spines as it dove under the ship.

"Alden hold my legs!" Stuart said as he jumped over the edge of the ship.

"Wha-hey!" Alden just barely caught Stuart's legs by wrapping his arms around his ankles. "What the hell are you doing!"

"Sealing up the ship." Stuart placed his wooden arm on the edge of the opening in the ship. His hand 'sunk' into the ship's side and more wood seemed to spread down the opening to seal it completely.

"Ok, keep doing that I'll steer." Hurley said when he turned his arms back to normal and he ran back to the helm.

"I can't hold this forever Hurley! We need to get to shore!" Stuart said from his position.

"Hurley don't we have some rope or something?" Alden yelled.

"Crap!" Hurley stopped, turned around and ran to the edge again. "Here this'll help."

Hurley put his hand on the side of the ship and turned it into his metal. From his hand more metal grew downward and to the side of Stuart and spread out to form a platform.

Alden released Stuart to see him fall onto the platform and lay there with his arm still inside the wood.

"Hey Stuie! Think you can hold that for an hour?" Hurley asked.

"Not sure, never held it that long. Just make sure we move fast."

"Got it! Alden, unfurl the second sail. We gotta haul ass."

Alden did so at high speed as he ran to undo the ropes.

Hurley ran towards the helm but stopped again to run back to and look over the edge to Stuart.

"Hey Stuie, which way do we go?"

"North West from here."

Hurley ran back to the helm and took out his compass to get his direction.

After half an hour of travel they had caught sight of Tebrun Island. They slowed their speed and eventually docked the Ocean Caesar. When the record keeper came to make his record of their docking he stopped to look at Stuart laying on the side.

"Hi there! You know anyone who might be able to help us repair a hole?"

The record keeper looked up to see Hurley leaning over the railing.

"Um...I suppose I could talk give you instructions to our shipwright's work house. But, were is your ship's damage?"

"We'd show you but right now it's being temporarily taken care of. So if you could just direct us it'd be much appreciated."

The record keeper gave them the directions to the work house and it wasn't far from their previous location. They drifted into the canal leading towards the repair. An old man came out and looked at Stuart still with his arm in the side of the ship.

"Huh. Never seen that before. What seems to be the problem young man?" the old man asked.

"We have an opening in our ship and we need it fixed. I'd show you but I'm keeping it closed at the moment. Think you can raise the ship above the water level or something?" Stuart asked.

"No problem. Meller, raise up the horses." the old man turned and called into a doorway.

"Yes sir." From the doorway came a young man with grey hair. He looked to be about eighteen and he had on a red shirt. His pants were black with a studded belt and he had a pair of work boots on. He ran to a small stand with levers in it and pulled on one of them.

The Ocean Ceaser shook slightly as something made contact with it on it's underside. The ship then started to rise up from the water. Alden, Hurley, and Stuart all looked down to see that two huge ship-bracing horses had risen from the water and were holding the ship.

Stuart sighed and started to pull back his arm. As he did so, the hole started to reform and revealed itself to be so long that it nearly reached the center bottom of the ship.

The old man whistled as he looked at the opening. "How'd you get this big a gash in it?"

"Had a run-in with a Sea King." Alden said as he slid down the walking plank to the ground.

"A really bastard-ass one." Hurley added.

"Did it have a sharp beak?" The old man asked.

"Yeah, like a spear. How'd you know?" Alden said as he finished walking down.

"Ha, that's lil' pokey. He goes around and swims near the island. Spoil him rotten whenever he goes near a ship of ours. We throw him some meat and he's on his way."

"Lil' Pokey?" Hurley raised his eyebrow in question to the name.

"So we could have avoided the damage if we just gave the king something to eat?" Alden turned to Hurley.

"How was I suppose to know?"

"But don't worry. We'll have the ship fixed up by tomorrow afternoon, until then feel free to go around town. Our markets always welcome new customers."

"You got any good restaurants?" Hurley asked.

"Actually yeah, my own family runs one. It's called The High Tide. Check it out when you can." The old man said.

"I'll be sure to stop by there. But first things first, inventory."

"Really, what do we need to get?" Stuart asked.

"No idea. Just know we need stuff, you can never go wrong with having more stuff." Hurley said as he walked out the main door.

Alden and Stuart sighed and walked out behind Hurley.

"Wow this place does welcome customers." Hurley said as he was given his second flower necklace by the two women who were at the entrance of the market street. "Okay, you guys go find whatever you think we need."

"What about you?" Alden asked.

"I'm gonna try and find some possible ship writes. Who knows, there might be a good one out here. We'll meet back at uhhhh that hotel." Hurley pointed to a nearby hotel.

"I'll see you guys later." He then turned and walked down the street.

"Any idea what we 'need?'" Stuart said.

"Well, we could check for food. We can always use more of that."

"You only say that cause you do a lot of exercise and burn a lot of crap off."

"Nothing wrong with being in shape. You should do something like run with me sometime."

"Yeah well, I don't run unless I'm being chased by something really big and/or really freaky."

Back at the Workshop

"Hey Meller! Get down from there and go home. Your shifts just about over." The old man shouted to the young boy on the platform being hung on the ship's side.

"Oh come on Baro! I can go another shift, besides," the young man turned to look at his superior, "The insides of this thing is so cool, it's got mechanics out the wazoo built into almost everything! It looks like it hasn't been used in years but I think I could get it all running if I put a little elbow grease into it."

"Not a chance, no way in hell am I getting thrown into a pile of crap 'cause I kept you over the work limit. Go home kid."

"Damn it." Meller jumped from the platform to the ground and started to walk off. "We should probably go with some hard lining for a first layer then add on a shaved set of hardened outer layers, the ship looks designed for speed cruising. Which is weird considering the backside of the ship looks like someone wanted a house built on the thing. Very creative though."

"It looks like it was made to be that way doesn't it? Maybe it even attaches to something." The old man said while rubbing his beard.

"Hay! Maybe it's made to be part of those fancy wrap-around veils they put on some cruisers to act like giant umbrella's to keep the sun off the entire deck?"

"Haha! Meller we were hired to fix the hole in the ship not give it a complete re-haul."

"Yeah, yeah...think they'd let me do that?" Meller asked with genuine enthusiasm.

"Geez, you really love this job don't you kid?"

"Hell yeah! Why wouldn't I be? I make and repair one of the only ways of transportation we have in the world. When it comes to working on these things, I don't know what it is, but to me when I put my hands to the good by working on repairing a ship, it's like art on one huge canvas."

Baro stood watching his employee stare at the ship with a light in his eyes. "Well...I wouldn't know anything about that, but so long as I get paid I'm good. Now get outta here." He said scratching his head.

"Yeah, yeah I'm going."

Meller walked off to the office and out it's doors.

Back in Town

Hurley walked through town as the sun started to set in the distance making the sky start to turn orange.

"Whew. What a day. So many shipwrights but they're all the same. They just want to make a ship look pretty. Not one of them knows how to make a ship designed for combat and hazardous weather. Where's a bad ass shipwright when you need one?"

Hurley continued walking down the street until he received a call from nature. He looked around to see if he could find a restroom and thankfully there was one to his right. He walked towards it but before he got to it he noticed the young man from the Shipwright repair shop enter it first.

"Dang it." Hurley decided to wait for him to come back out by sitting at a table. But not even a minute passed when the door opened. But Hurley didn't get up when he noticed a brown head of hair peek out the door. A woman's head. She looked out the door and quickly stepped out. She had on a brown shirt with red coloring on the sleeves and bottom. Her pants were black with a studded belt and black boots with metal covering the toes.

"Whoa. Women here must be of the 'exotic' kind." Hurley got up and walked to the bathroom. He entered it and noticed that it was a one person room. "Hey wait a...oh. Huh. Never saw a transvestite before."

When Hurley left the restroom he decided to get something to eat. He remembered that the old man said that his family owned a restaurant so he traveled down the street looking for the said restaurant. Eventually he found the place he was looking for. The High Tide.

Hurley entered and noticed that there were a few customers, but they were eating happily so he decided that the place couldn't be bad. He sat down at a table and set his hat down while taking up the menu. After reading it over he decided what he wanted. Now he just had to wait. Which wasn't long thankfully.

"Hi, welcome to the High Tide. My name's Tally, how may I help you?"

Hurley turned to notice that the waitress was the same woman that left the restroom.

"Uh, yes I'll have the fish and spice sandwich please."

"Alright. Anything else?" The woman said.

"No thank you that's all."

"Alright your food will be here in a moment, and thank you for choosing The High tide."

The girl known as Tally walked off and into the back of the restaurant. After a few minutes she came back and placed the plate with the sandwich down on the table.

"If there's anything else you need don't hesitate to ask."

"Well actually I wanted to say one thing." Hurley began.

"Yes?"

"I wanted to thank you for fixing up my ship. Really, thanks a lo-"

"I'm sorry sir I don't know what your talking about." Tally said with a smile that was starting to twitch in it's corner.

Hurley leaned forward and whispered to her. "Don't worry, I've got no problem with anyone's personal choices, I saw you come out the bathroom after you went in as a guy. Just so long as you do a good job on my ship." He finished with a thumbs up and a wide smile.

Tally seemed to just look around to see the small amount of customers minding their own business. She then took that time to shoot her arm out and grab Hurley's shirt collar and brought her face within his and whisper to him.

"Okay listen buddy, whatever you saw, forget it. I'll talk to you later about this when everyone else is gone but until then you say one word about seeing me come out of the bathroom and I'll pull your lower jaw off, understand?"

"Yes ma'am, er sir. Er..."

"Alright sir thank you once again and enjoy." Tally said suddenly cheerful and walked off.

Hurley turned to his sandwich, a little scared. Almost half an hour later the customers were gone and he was sitting there thinking to himself as he had finished his sandwich a while ago.

Finally Tally had come out from the back and sat down across from Hurley.

"Ummmm, if I said anything to offend you, uhh sir, or-"

"I'm a girl ya ass."

"Ma'am then." Hurley said, relieved that he knew what to say. "So then, what did you want to say or rather possibly explain to me?"

"I am a girl, but when I work I'm a guy."

"But you said, you weren't a trans-"

"Shut up, I'll explain. I ate a Devil Fruit, the Sei Sei no Mi. I needed to eat it in order to do my work."

"...At the restaurant?"

"At the work shop."

"Why?" Hurley asked confused.

Tally sighed in as she started to explain. "Your not from this island so I'll explain how things go around here. This is an old style island. The traditions here are like rules, the men go to work and bring home the money while the woman stays at home and cooks the food."

"Your working here."

"This isn't a hard work job. I'm a waitress, I can't get 'hurt' here."

"So you ate a Devil Fruit that lets you change your gender, just so you could work as a shipwright. Why?"

Tally sighed and put her head in her hand and leaned on her elbow. "It's I guess what you could say is my calling. I love to build, I love to work with my hands. I've always been different from other girls around here. They just go around playing the cutesy little house girls that go around and do household tasks or do the little jobs like waitressing. I like the rough stuff, I just like to do it."

"How good of a shipwright are you?" Hurley asked.

"Are you kidding? There's not a ship in the seas I can't fix. There's nothing I can't build, I learned from the best, old man Baro. He owns the work shop, and hes the best on the island. Forty-five year veteran in the profession and he trained me and now I'm the second best on the island."

Hurley was slowly leaning over the table as he kept hearing more and more from Tally.

"Your not one of those shipwrights that build ships only designed for show are you?" He asked.

"Hell no, I build and work on any type of ship."

"What about pirate ships?"

"Are you kidding? I'd love to work on pirate ships! Hey wait, why are you asking?"

"Listen miss,"

"Tally, just Tally."

"Tally, my name is Batik Hurley and I so happen to be the Captain of The Steel Will Pirates."

"Your a pirate captain?" Tally said, obviously surprised.

"Yep, and currently we are in need of a skilled shipwright."

"Wait, are you asking what I think your asking?"

"What do you say? You get to see the world, probably kick a lot of Marine ass, and achieve a goal that everyone in the crew is willing to accomplish."

"What find One Piece?"

"Well if we do, that'll be kick ass but my crew has one thing in common. We all want to be legendary. We want to be so great that we become a permanent part of history's archive."

"So you want to be famous."

"No, not famous legendary. Just think of it this way, when the world thinks of great shipwrights, they'll think Tally. They think of the world renowned, widely acclaimed, and forever remembered Tally, legend of all shipwrights."

"Tempting but would it help my goals?"

"Well what are they?"

"I want to prove to the world that if someone wants something, they can achieve whatever they want when they work their ass off for it. My dream is to prove that anyone can become good at something if they just work for it."

"Well I think you'll fit in just fine. What do ya say?"

"No thanks."

Slam! Hurley's head hit the table.

"Why not?"

"I couldn't just get up and leave. Listen, my parents died at sea when I was little, and old man Baro raised me since then. I couldn't just leave him. I hate this places traditions, not it's people."

Hurley sighed. "Alright, I guess I understand. But if you change your mind, we'll be docked here until noon tomorrow after you guys fix our ship. Because I'm telling you, we could use a woman who knows how to handle large amounts of wood."

"..." Tally was staring wide eyed and with angled eyebrows at Hurley.

"...Waaaaaaait..."

WHAM! Tally had punched Hurley hard enough to make him and the chair he was sitting in fall over.

"OOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW! I didn't mean it like that!" Hurley said holding his nose while Tally was still holding her fist out and shaking in great agitation.

"Thanks but like I said," Tally got up, "I can't just leave the man who raised me."

Hurley got himself up while still holding his face. "Alright, but just remember my offer."

Hurley got up him self and walked toward the door. Only to have the back of his coat grabbed and pulled.

"You didn't think that I'd let you leave without paying your bill did you?"

"Oh sorry, forgot." Although inside Hurley's mind he said to himself, 'Dang.'

Shortly after paying and leaving the restaurant Hurley thought to himself while walking.

At the Hotel

Hurley walked in through the door, only to be hit in the face with something that bounced up into the air then into his hand as he grabbed it.

"Hey what the hell? Why'd you-oh cool! I love fruit!" He said before he started eating the apple.

"We got just about everything, so don't worry about needing more for a good while." Alden said.

"So how'd the search go?" Stuart asked.

"Well, all we can hope for now is an impact. For now, it's night night time." Hurley went strait to his bed, kicked off his shoes, and threw the apple core into the trash.

Early next Morning

Tally was working on the finishing touches of the Ocean Caesar's repair. She had been there for about two hours and had finished the outside woodworks.

"Okay, wood fits in place, check. Held together so it won't collapse off, check. Just have to paint it so it matches on the outside and then maybe I can take a look at the mechanics in the ship, hehehe." She chuckled to herself.

"Good work, I'm impressed." said a voice above her.

"Ahhhhhhh!" Tally nearly fell off the platform. She looked up and saw Baro leaning over the railing. "Baro! Hi, uhhh, I was just looking at the work Meller was doing. He's really good, he went to the bathroom real quick, I'll go get him."

Tally started to pull up the platform, hoping to get to the bathroom soon.

"Strange, I just went to the bathroom. He wasn't there." Baro said.

"Huh, he must have just went when you left."

Baro stared down at Tally for a while. Then he said something that caused Tally to feel dread.

"You've been here for all those hours already, why show that much devotion to this ship?"

Tally looked up again and said, "What are you talking about old man? I just got here."

"Tally, cut the crap. I know your Meller."

"What? Geez Baro you must be going senile at your old age. Isn't it obvious I'm a girl? I know I'm a tomboy but still...to confuse me with that guy, man."

"You didn't change your clothes."

"Huh?"

"All the times you worked here, you hardly ever changes your pants. You always said you loved those pants."

"Uh, I, uhhh. Old man I can explain!"

"STOP RIGHT THERE!" Baro shouted. Tally just stood there looking up at him. "I knew it was you from the moment you came to me as Meller. Your attitude was the exact same as when your a girl. You fixed and built more ships than any of the other workers. You came early and left late. You worked on cruise liners, battle ships and work boats. You did it all. Do you know what that means?"

Tally kept her gaze but now it had turned worried.

"That means..."

Tally let her head drop and prepared for the worst.

"That means I'd have to be nuts to fire you."

Tally's head raised back up with wide eyes. "What?"

"Come on, bring up the platform so we can both finish the paint on this thing." Baro held up a few paint cans and brushes.

"Freak'n awesome!" Tally then started to pull up the platform at a faster pace. After Baro had gotten on and started painting with Tally he said something to her.

"So, are you going to tell me or not?"

"Hmm? Tell you what?"

"Why you were showing such devotion to this ship? What's so special about it?"

"Oh that. I don't know, I guess I just think that it needs to be taken care of for what it's owner has planned for it."

"You met him?"

"Yeah, he says that he's a pirate captain and wants his crew to become legendary. He kind of got me inspired."

"That so?" Baro noticed how Tally's eyes seemed to brighten at this time.

"Yeah, he even wanted me to join his crew. He said if I joined, I could become 'The Legendary Shipwright.' Heh, that would have been cool."

"What did you say to that?"

"Don't worry old man, I ain't going anywhere."

"Why not?"

Tally's jerking arm made a streak across the ship's wood.

"WHAT?"

"Why didn't you go with him? Why not join his crew?"

"How can you be saying that Baro? I could never leave you! Or your wife and kids. Your like a grandfather to me! I owe you everything that I have, there's no way I could leave you guys!"

"Tally listen."

Tally looked at Baro to hear what he had to say.

"This island is old, and accustomed to the old ways of life. You're not. You were born into a new world and brought into ours. Even when I found you in a lifeboat as a child, I knew you had a lot of spunk in you. You were meant for big things Tally. This could be your one and only calling."

"But- but old man I-"

"My family and I love you like you were our own flesh and blood. But if you stay here, you'll only be held back. Your skills are among the best on the island, and if that man says he'll make his crew legendary then he'll do it, amusing that he means it. And from what I can see from the shine in his eyes that's so much like yours, he does in every part of his very will."

Tally held her brush in both hands and looked down at the platform she stood on. Her hair covering her eyes and her mouth unmoving. Untill...

"You relly think I was destined for great things?" she asked.

Baro put his arm around her in a hug. "Like I said, I thought that from the day I found you."

Tally couldn't help but smile.

Later that day

The Ocean Caesar was floating proudly next to the docks. Hurley, Alden, and Stuart had finished storing the fresh supplies they had bought the night before. Hurley was especially happy and was looking over the railing at the repaired part of the ship.

"Whoo they really know how to work magic don't they?"

"You seem to be especially happy about this." Alden said.

"I have every right to. This ship cost me thirty million Beli when I first got it."

"Hey Hurley." Stuart said.

"Yeah?"

"We have a visitor."

At the bottom of the docking ramp stood Meller. He had a big bag over his shoulder and on the back of his waist was, for some reason, an anchor and chain.

"Oh it's you! Change your mind?" Hurley said excitedly.

"Yeah. I gotta hand it to you, you know how to be charismatic enough to get people on your side." Meller said as he walked up the ramp onto the ship.

"Uh Hurley, there something me and Stuie should know?" Alden asked.

"Oh yeah, my bad I forgot. Guys, meet Tally. She's our shipwright, TA DAAAAAA!" Hurley said presenting the said new member with both his hands shaking to show off Meller.

Alden and Stuart looked at each other. "She?"

"I'm sorry I forgot to change back after I was done packing up the heavy stuff."

Suddenly, Meller's grey hair grew out and turned brown, his waist thinned and well as his legs and arms. Then...

-Boin-

Alden and Stuart's eyes widened in surprise. Hurley's eyes widened in curiosity as he said "That was freaky, yet kinda hot. I like it!"

"I ate a devil fruit that lets me change my gender. I'm a girl by nature but a male body has it's uses when I need to do heavy lifting."

Hurley shook his head rapidly and turned to his crew mates. "So, what do ya think?"

Stuart reached over and grabbed Hurley's shoulder and brought him in close on either side of Alden.

"So, she changes her gender and is a shipwright. Am I right?"

"Yeah pretty much, and did anybody else hear that sound?"

"She seems ok but what do you think she can do as a pirate?" Alden asked.

"Not sure, but back to that sound..."

"We should probably test her for that. What do you think Hurley?" Stuart said.

"I know how we can test her for that. But seriously, who else heard a 'Boin' sound?"

"I didn't hear anything." Alden said.

"Neither did I."

"Your kidding! I could've swore I heard a 'Boin' sound when her b-"

"Hey guys,"

The three men turned to face Tally.

"Something going on?"

Hurley turned to his left to Alden, then turned back to Tally.

"Actually yeah, Alden here is a little skeptic about you. He himself said that a girl couldn't possibly be a shipwright."

"What?" Tally said with an angry face.

"Hey I didn't-hmf!" Hurley covered Alden's mouth with his hand.

"In fact he said women in general should just avoid true man's work like the heavy lifting you mentioned and stick to knitting and working in kitchens, or stuff like that."

"Really." Tally said with a voice sounding like it was holding back anger. "Well then let me demonstrate the 'heavy lifting' I'm not supposed to do."

Tally's body changed again to Meller. Only this time the body was very different. It had a considerably higher amount of muscle packed on and was a bit taller.

"Ok." Hurley said while still covering Alden's mouth.

"HMF HMF! HMM-MM-MMMM!" Alden kept trying to shout.

Tally put his hand behind his body, gripped the anchor and brought it up in his hand.

"Anchor..."

Hurley removed his hand and stepped aside as did Stuart.

"Arm!"

Tally threw the anchor hard at Alden.

Alden promptly said the following.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Pang!

The anchor hit Alden and sent him flying into the water. Tally pulled back on the chain and grabbed the anchor.

"That should convince him." She said as she changed back.

"Actually he didn't say that, I was just seeing how well you fight. You seem good. Your now officially a crew member." Hurley said as he walked off to pull up the ramp.

"What!" Tally ran over to the edge and shouted out, "Sorry Alden! I didn't know you guys were just testing me."

"Yeah, testing. That's exactly what we were doing." Alden said sarcastically as he swam back to the ship.

"I got him." Stuart said as he threw out a rope to Alden.

"So then, if I'm the shipwright you guys are...?"

"I'm the navigator, and Alden is first mate." Stuart said as he started to pull up Alden.

"So who else is on board?" Tally asked.

"Your looking at us."

"You mean right now there's just the four of us?"

"Yep pretty much." Stuart said as Alden finally got on the deck.

"Ok Stuie, figure out were the next island is, were going for another crew member."

"Got it." Stuart walked off to the map room were he kept his books and charts.

"So captain, what crew mate are we searching for now?" Tally asked.

"Hmmmmm, don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"I mean It'll come to us when it comes to us. We just wait for destiny to point us towards the man or woman we need to have on our side. We shall ride the waves and defy the land. We shall look to the clouds, but not the sun. Cause then we'll go blind."

"...You gotta be kidding." Tally said with a sweat drop.

"Welcome aboard the S.S. What the Hell Tally." Alden said as he walked past Tally to go get some new clothes.

"What did I get myself into?" She said to herself.

Translation: Haustrum-Piston

Well there's the third chapter. Hope you enjoyed it. Also btw, I have been asked a few questions regarding Hurley's powers and was going to save the answers and explanations untill later in the story because they WILL come up but what the hell here are some answers.

Q: Hurley's Powers A: While metal may not be part of the classical elements (Earth, Wind, Fire, Water) but it is an element in many other cases. Hell, in china metal is seen as one of five elements. Also if someone was to think 'Metal logia really?' think of this: Swamp logia...huh. I think logia fruits aren't really 'elemental' powers as much as 'nature' powers or something like that. Though I have no idea what to say when it comes to the Paper Logia fruit or the candy logia fruit.

When I made Hurley's DF I thought about how when a Logia df user gets hit they go 'poof' into whatever they turn into, the exception being Teach of course, but metal isn't incorporeal like say fire or smoke and is harder than ice can be so he can't break apart so easily like Aokiji. Rather he stays together instead of going 'poof.' Though he can be broken if hit hard enough most likely.

Well there you go, now its preview time!

Hurley: Ooooo, a sea-faring cicus. Cool!

Alden: Who or what the hell are those two?

Tally: This place sure is interesting

Next chapter: The Beautiful voice of the Seas

Hurley: She's freaking awesome! I gotta ask her!

?: My music is my true gift.


End file.
